The Numismatourist has just returned from an annual trip to Israel. Besides visiting family and gathering additional material for two books (one of which has nothing to do with numismatics), I had opportunities to renew acquaintances with several individuals associated with numismatics.

In Jerusalem, I visited the Bank of Israel, the nation's central bank. It's headquarters are immediately opposite that of the building of the Prime Minister. At the Bank, I visited my friend, Dr. Rachel Barkay, Curator of Numismatics, Currency Department. She showed me the Bank's new permanent exhibition. If you see the view of it from the second level, the design of the panels has a meaning to it. It represents the currency symbol for the new Israel shekel (NIS, ₪).

Also in Jerusalem, I met up with author and collector, Yigal Arkin. Yigal, who has a computer graphics and printing industry background, has written a number of books in both Hebrew and English about the coins and banknotes of Israel and the Palestine Mandate for the Bank of Israel. He has also worked on the current pamphlet describing the Bank's permanent exhibition. Yigal is finishing up an introductory book on U.S. paper money with many high-quality color images.

Just down the road from the Bank of Israel and the government complex of buildings is the Israel Museum. Here is a campus of a number of venues but after a renovation that was completed last year, the Museum complex houses the Archeology wing where you will find the museum's numismatic exhibition. Unlike prior to the renovation when the exhibition was displayed in one location, now coins are integrated throughout the galleries among the specimens of different eras, e.g., Greek, Roman, Byzantine, etc. Also on the Israel Museum campus is the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea scrolls are on display. There is also a 50:1 scale model of the ancient city of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple.

When we traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel's business city on the Mediterranean, to meet up with other family later, I had an opportunity to stop by and have lunch with Shlomo Tepper, a CPA by training who is a collector and author. He recently wrote, "The Unissued Banknotes of Palestine and Israel" which is in both Hebrew and English, of which he graciously autographed and sent me a copy when it was published.

I have no further trips until March when I visit Baden-Baden for a few days of R&R and then one week to my namesake city of Berlin to gather material for a travel book I've working on for several years.