1967 Israeli 10-lirot

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Israel’s 1967 10-lirot “Victory” commem, struck in .935 silver with a diameter of 37mm and a weight of 26g. The Hebrew letter mem—denoting a “proof” coin—is visible to the left of the 1967 date. Which means this coin was minted at the Kretschmer mint in Jerusalem. Inscribed on the coin’s edge is the date 5.6-10.6 1967, marking, of course, the duration of the Six-Day War.

One of Israel’s great prizes of the war dominates the coin’s obverse: the Wailing Wall in old Jerusalem. The reverse—dominated by an upright sword—is emblematic of the Israeli Defense Force.

The father of one of my friends brought him one of these Victory commems (we were young coin collectors together), and it thrilled the both of us. And why not? Our fathers were in the American Air Force and the Israeli Air Force was big, big news that year.

But we were 10-year-olds. And if the bright, burnished and victorious sword was something admired by the boy, I find the man admires more the Israeli 10-lirot of a couple of years later, the 1969 commemorative with a soldier’s empty helmet next to the words from Deuteronomy 34:6—“And no man knoweth the place of his own burial.”

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