10 Agorot controversy
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The design of the Israeli 10 agorot coin was briefly a subject of controversy. In a press conference called by the PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in Geneva, in December 13, 1988, he claimed that the obverse design of this coin incorporates a map of a "Greater Israel" that "goes from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia, from the Red Sea to the Euphrates", and thus reflects Zionist expansionism. Israel denied this, maintaining that the 10 agorot design was selected for historical value, and "was closely patterned after a coin issued in 37–40 B.C.E., during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, by Mattathias Antigonus II, the last Hasmonaean King". [1]
The design, made by Nathan Karp, first appeared on the 100 (old) Sheqalim coin issued by the Bank of Israel on May 2, 1984 [2]. When the Sheqel currency was replaced by the New Sheqel (September 1985) the design was copied to the new 10 Agorot coin, which was equal in value to the old 100 Sheqalim coin. This design was also adopted as the symbol of the Bank of Israel.
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