The Anglo-Palestine Bank issued the first banknotes of מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL.

The bank had ordered notes before independence, when the state’s name and its currency’s name were not yet fixed. S. Hoofien arranged printing by the American Banknote Company in New York. The notes consequently retained the exact artifact wording Palestine Pound, without naming the new state. That source-owned inscription is evidence about the banknotes, not TJD’s geographic house name. The catalog reproduces their denominations and the legal-tender legend. ¹

The printed declaration included:

Legal tender for payment of any amount ²

The notes arrived secretly in July; legal authorization followed on August 17. The bank’s authority came from the new legal arrangements. The survival of an older currency label did not make the notes an issue by the former Mandatory administration.

The August 16 diary of דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION records discussion of currency in the State Council that evening. JTA’s August 18 report says that the council unanimously approved the measure last night, pointing to August 17. The official catalog separates the legal arrangements from circulation on August 18. Goldberg’s working paper instead dates passage of the ordinances to August 16 and the start of the currency swap to August 17. Its references include the Official Gazette issued on August 17 and newspapers issued on August 18. Those issue dates cannot alone resolve the event dates. The unavailable original parliamentary scan prevents a definitive reconstruction of the debate and vote by session hour. ³ These stages remain separate instead of forcing the diary and dispatch into one event date. ^{4 5 6}

JTA reported that more than one million pounds were exchanged in less than four hours. That is a contemporaneous reported turnover, not an audited balance sheet or a count of individual users. Its earlier August 16 forecast of circulation the following week was superseded by the actual August 18 report. ^{7 8}

A scholarly working paper on war finance by Dror Goldberg examines the Issue Department’s first report of August 18. It describes empty gold and treasury-bill entries and backing through inherited Mandatory notes and dollar assets. The working paper emphasizes:

The most significant entries in the report were empty ⁹

This distinguishes the Issue Department’s note backing from government borrowing through the bank’s Banking Department. ¹⁰

A new note issue enabled payment, exchange and government finance. It did not itself provide imports, export income or all the resources needed for war and settlement. The state’s banknote authority, its reserves and its ability to mobilize goods are related but distinct. The official history of the central bank places this earlier issue within the transition to the later Bank of Israel. ¹¹

The official catalog dates circulation to August 18, 1948, corresponding to י״ג באב ה׳תש״ח 13th 𝑜𝑓 Av, AM 5708. JTA’s same-day report corroborates actual exchange. The August 16 diary’s council discussion and JTA’s August 17 last-night approval are preparatory stages whose exact session chronology awaits the original parliamentary record. Goldberg’s August 17 swap date conflicts with the official catalog’s August 18 circulation date. The present article retains the established August 18 circulation route while explicitly preserving that scholarly alternative pending original records. The existing calendar-review history is preserved without claiming new human approval. ^{12 13 14}

• How did an inherited currency label coexist with the authority of a newly sovereign state?
• How does the evidence connect the safety and authority of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL with the responsibilities of a sovereign state?