As a component of material cultural heritage, coins often comprise a valuable part of communal cultural identity. Symbolism is chosen deliberately to represent the region or nation where they’ve been minted as well as the legitimacy of the minting authority. In contexts of foreign rule, as in Palestine during the Ottoman period or under the British Mandate, numismatic symbolism has also represented the ideals of sovereignty, enabled economic exchange, and memorialised political change.

When the Ottoman Empire took control of Palestine in 1516, the region became part of a vast transcontinental empire governed from Constantinople, present-day Istanbul. The empire’s monetary system was based on the silver akce, which was later replaced by the kuruş and the gold lira. Ottoman coins were produced in imperial mints, for instance in Constantinople (Darphane, still the location of the Turkish State Mint today), and circulated widely across the empire. Throughout the Ottoman period, these coins bore the tughra, the calligraphic emblem of the sultan, as well as inscriptions in Ottoman Turkish identifying the ruler. Valorising the caliphate’s longevity, coins did not indicate their year of minting but rather the accessional date of the current Ottoman sultan (Album 2011).

The design of the coins emphasised imperial unity rather than disparate regional identity. By the mid-nineteenth century, with the growth of global trade networks, Palestine’s economy became increasingly connected to international markets. Partly in response to increasing foreign interventions, influence, and participation in the Ottoman Empire, the Sublime Porte in Constantinople launched the Tanzimat reforms in 1839, which aimed to centralise governance, standardise taxation, and regulate the fiscal system. Coinage reform was an important part of these efforts.

In 1844, the empire introduced a new currency system featuring the gold lira, silver kuruş, and copper para. These standardised coins were intended to stabilise the currency, but in practice, Palestine remained a region where multiple currencies coexisted. While the Tanzimat period brought more stability, it also shed light on the diversity of currencies in circulation and the challenges of integrating Palestine into a unified imperial economy.

By the early twentieth century, the Ottoman monetary system was under increasing strain. Inflation, alongside the influx of foreign currencies, created confusion in everyday transactions. Merchants and money changers in Palestinian cities like Jerusalem and Haifa often had to calculate prices in multiple currencies. Despite the imperial government’s efforts to maintain control, economic fragmentation persisted.

The onset of World War I intensified these pressures. The collapse of the Ottoman economy caused widespread inflation, and Ottoman paper currency quickly depreciated. Both civilians and soldiers began to lose faith in Ottoman banknotes, and the region faced acute coin shortages. British military forces, advancing from Egypt during the war, introduced their own currencies along with the Egyptian pound in areas they occupied, signalling the waning of Ottoman influence. Following the Ottoman defeat in 1918, Palestine was placed under British military occupation, and in 1922, it became a formal League of Nations Mandate. This transition brought with it another major change in currency. In 1927, the British authorities established the Palestine Currency Board and introduced a new national currency: the Palestine pound. This currency replaced both Ottoman and foreign currencies and represented the beginning of a new political and economic era under British rule.

Throughout the Ottoman period, Palestine’s monetary system reflected the negotiation of imperial rule, international trade, and regional change. As the region moved from Ottoman to British control, these coins memorialised a political landscape in flux, marking the transition from one imperial power to another.

The role of Palestine within the Ottoman Empire was often framed through economic and political relationships, but it was also shaped by the interactions of diverse religious and cultural communities. The Ottoman Empire’s approach to currency in Palestine reflected broader strategies of governance that attempted to balance local identities with imperial control, as did their policies in other peripheral regions, notably Iraq, which are addressed in the second chapter of my forthcoming book (Leeson 2025). These efforts to standardise and integrate outlying (largely Arab) regions into the greater empire had lasting impacts on Palestine’s political economy and its connection to global trade, as well as the nature of its relationship with other imperial states.

Once under British rule, the Palestine pound was designed to stabilise the local economy and assert administrative control. Pegged to the British pound sterling and divided into 1,000 mils, the new coins and banknotes were inscribed in English, Arabic, and Hebrew (the three official languages of the Mandate state as declared by Britain). The inclusion of Hebrew used the abbreviation א"י (Alef-Yod), an abbreviation for “Eretz Yisrael” (Land of Israel), a term associated with Zionist aspirations. Its presence on the coinage was contested by Palestinian Arab leaders, who viewed it as a political provocation (Wallach 2010).

This referred to the fact that British rhetoric up to this point, particularly in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, had promised a portion of Palestinian land to constitute a “Jewish homeland,” in contradiction to the wishes of the local population. (As a side note, the Palestine pound became legal tender on November 1st, 1927, almost exactly ten years to the day of the (November 2nd) 1917 Balfour Declaration). Notably, this rhetoric as well as the inclusion of א"י on coinage was also criticised by the Orthodox Jewish community in Palestine, who believed the right to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel belonged not to Britain but rather solely to the Messiah of the House of David (B’nai B’rith 2025).

Text notwithstanding, coins of the Mandate period featured imagery chosen to avoid overt political symbolism (Wallach 2010). Designs included the olive branch, citrus fruits, and stylised architectural elements. While modest in appearance, the coins were part of a larger project to create a stable, governable economic environment. At the same time, they continued to be emblematic of the contradictions inherent in the British Mandate itself.

One such coin was the 1 mil piece issued in 1927, the lowest denomination in the new currency system, featured in the cover image of this article. On one side was the trilingual inscription: “Palestine” in English, Arabic (فلسطين), and Hebrew (פלשתינה), followed by א"י. The reverse depicts the denomination in numerals and words in all three languages, with the date in both the Gregorian and Hijri calendars. The coin measured 21 mm in diameter, weighed 3.23 grams, and was composed of 95.5% copper, 3% tin, and 1.5% zinc (Numista 2024).

The choice of neutral design, with no human or animal imagery, was intentional. The British administration aimed to avoid antagonising either the Arab or Jewish populations, but even this minimalist approach sparked further political debate. The 1 mil coin was struck in several years: 1927, 1935, 1937, and 1939-1947. Though dated coins from 1947 were produced, they were never released into circulation and most were melted down, making surviving examples exceedingly rare (Warwick & Warwick 2019).

For Palestinian Arabs, the Mandate coinage was both a practical, necessary instrument for economic exchange and a daily reminder of colonial rule and demographic transformation. For Jewish immigrants and institutions, the same coins often represented progress toward statehood, though it was a statehood imposed by a non-democratically representative imperial power. In either case, these coins, circulating in the pockets of farmers, shopkeepers, and city dwellers, are now artifacts of a formative and volatile period. The end of the British Mandate in 1948 brought a gradual end to the Palestinian pound, though it stayed in circulation in the new state of Israel for roughly six months, and in the Gaza Strip and Jordan until 1950-1951. The coins of the Mandate era were gradually withdrawn, but they remain, for collectors and historians, evidence of the ways in which Palestine has been ill-advisedly changed by imperial rule.

References

Album, Stephan. (2011). A Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Edition. Santa Rosa: Stephan Album Rare Coins.
B’nai B’rith International. (2025). “Palestine Mandate Coins – Design Controversy.”
Leeson, Madison. (2025). Heritage and Legitimacy: Cultural Governance in Modern Iraq. Cham: Springer.
Numista. (2024). “Palestine 1 Mil 1927.”
Warwick & Warwick Auctioneers of Collectables. (2019, June 10). “Extremely Rare Palestine 1947 1 Mil Coin to be Offered in our 19th June 2019 Auction.”