British Mandate of Palestine the West Bank
Which country did Palestine pound belong to from 1927 to May 1948?
Palestine pound The Palestine pound ( , ; , , also ) was the currency of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1 November 1927 to 14 May 1948 , and of the State of Israel between 15 May 1948 , and 23 June 1952 , when it was replaced with the Israeli lira or pound . The Palestine pound was also the currency of Transjordan until 1949 when it was replaced by the Jordanian dinar , and remained in usage in the West Bank of Jordan until 1950 . In the Gaza Strip , the Palestine pound continued to circulate until April 1951 , when it was replaced by the Egyptian pound . History . Until 1918 , Palestine was an integral part of the Ottoman Empire and therefore used its currency , the Ottoman lira . During 1917 and 1918 , Palestine was occupied by the British army , who set up a military administration . The official currency was the Egyptian pound , which had been first introduced into Egypt in 1834 , but several other currencies were legal tender at fixed exchange rates that were vigorously enforced . After the establishment of a civil administration in 1921 , the High Commissioner Herbert Samuel ordered that from 22 January 1921 only Egyptian currency and the British gold sovereign would be legal tender . In 1926 , the British Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed a Palestine Currency Board to introduce a local currency . It was based in London and chaired by P . G . Ezechiel , with a Currency Officer resident in Palestine . The board decided that the new currency would be called the Palestine pound , fixed in value to the British pound and divided into 1000 mils . The one pound gold coin would contain 123.27447 grains of standard gold . The enabling legislation was the Palestine Currency Order , 1927 , signed by the King in February 1927 . The Palestine pound became legal tender on 1 November 1927 . The Egyptian pound ( at the fixed rate of 0.975 to the Palestine pound ) and the British gold sovereign remained legal tender until 1 March 1928 . The Palestine Currency Order explicitly excluded Transjordan from its application , but the Government of Transjordan decided to adopt the Palestine pound at the same time as Palestine did . The Egyptian pound remained legal tender in Transjordan until 1930 . All the denominations were trilingual in Arabic , English and Hebrew . The Hebrew inscription included after Palestina the initials Aleph Yud , for Eretz Yisrael ( Land of Israel ) . The Currency Board was dissolved in May 1948 , with the end of the British Mandate , but the Palestinian pound continued in circulation for transitional periods : - Israel adopted the Israeli pound ( or Israeli lira ) in 1952 . In August 1948 , new banknotes were issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank , owned by the Jewish Agency and based in London . - Jordan adopted the Jordanian dinar in 1949 . - In the West Bank , the Palestine pound continued to circulate until 1950 , when the West Bank was annexed by Jordan , and the Jordanian dinar became legal tender there . The Jordanian dinar is still legal tender in the West Bank along with the Israeli shekel . - In the Gaza Strip , the Palestine pound continued to circulate until April 1951 , when it was replaced by the Egyptian pound , three years after the Egyptian army took control of the territory . Since the mid-1980s , the primary currencies used in the West Bank have been the Israeli new shekel and the Jordanian dinar . The shekel is used for most transactions , especially retail , while the dinar is used more for savings and durable goods transactions . The United States dollar is also sometimes used for savings and for purchasing foreign goods . The dollar is used by the overwhelming majority of transactions overseen by the Palestinian Monetary Authority ( Palestines nascent central bank ) , which only represent a fraction of all transactions conducted in Palestine or by Palestinians . The shekel is the main currency in Gaza . Under Egyptian rule ( 1948–1956 ) , Gaza mainly used the Egyptian pound . When Israel occupied the Gaza Strip during the 1956 Suez Crisis , the military administration made the Israeli pound ( the predecessor to the shekel ) the only legal currency in Gaza in a 3 December decree , and implemented a favorable exchange rate to remove all Egyptian pounds from circulation . As a result , the pound and then the shekel became the dominant currency in Gaza , a situation that was reinforced in 1967 by the Israeli occupation of Gaza following the Six-Day War . Under Article IV of the Protocol on Economic Relations , the Palestinians are not allowed to independently introduce a separate Palestinian currency . At the same time , the use of two currencies increases the costs and inconvenience arising from fluctuating exchange rates . Coins . In 1927 , coins were introduced in denominations of 1 , 2 , 5 , 10 , 20 , 50 and 100 mils . The 1 and 2 mils were struck in bronze , whilst the 5 , 10 and 20 mils were holed , cupro-nickel coins , except for during World War II , when they were also minted in bronze . The coin of 10 mils was also called a grush . The 50 and 100 mils coins were struck in .720 silver . The last coins were issued for circulation in 1946 , with all 1947 dated coins being melted down . Banknotes . On 1 November 1927 , banknotes were introduced by the Palestine Currency Board in denominations of 500 mils , 1 , 5 , 10 , 50 and 100 pounds . Notes were issued with dates as late as 15 August 1945 . The 100 pound note was equivalent to 40 months’ wages of a skilled worker in Palestine . Currently six of them are unaccounted for and four are known to exist in the hand of collectors . Their serial numbers and dates are : - A000719 - 1 September 1927 - A000935 - 1 September 1927 - A001020 – 30 September 1929 - A001088 – 30 September 1929