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Catalogs / numismatic literature - Hebrew graphics - Shamir Brothers Studio - by Batia Dorner. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1999
The first banknote designed by the Shamir brothers is known as a paper machete. It came out in late 1953 for about 250 cents. The front side was abstract and the back side – the view of the Kinneret.
With the establishment of the central bank, the Bank of Israel, they began preparations for the issuance of banknotes of the new bank, they entered circulation in the summer of 1955. Their motto was the landscapes of the country, similar to the motto of the mandate banknotes.
In 1958, a tender was launched for a series of new banknotes. The Shamir brothers won on the front side and Yaakov Zim – on the back. This series carried clear graded messages: a figure of a Nahal soldier, a fisherman, an industrial worker, a scientist and a pair of pioneers. Shamir designed figures in a modern style, but the Dutch company that produced the bills demanded a realistic style as protection against forgery. The outline on both sides of the bills was by Shamir, and his drawings of Zim were incorporated into the outline.