ISRAEL 1960 50 LIROT P# 33a BLACK SN. UNC PMG 64 EPQ
50 Lirot
Obverse: boy and girl pioneers
Reverse: candelabrum from ancient synagogue at Maon-Nirim in the Negev
Dominant color: brown
Dimensions: 178 x 93 mm
Signatures: David Horowitz, Governor Bank of Israel; Yitzhak Nebenzahl, Chairman Advisory Council
Printers (unverified): Royal Joh. Enschedé, Haarlem/Netherlands
Pioneer youths are the subject of the obverse of the 50 Lirot (Bank of Israel series II) banknote. The two young people chosen were friends of an employee of Shamir Bros., designers of the banknote, and their likenesses grace the obverse, against the background of an agricultural settlement in the Negev.
The reverse shows a mosaic from the 6th century AD, part of a synagogue floor at Maon near Kibbutz Nirim in the Besor region, north of the Negev. The mosaic was discovered in 1957, during road construction works, and includes a Menorah (seven-branched candelabrum).