Old name for a new currency
Israelis last week got a new currency with a very old name. The shekel, originally a weight used by Jews in biblical times to measure gold and silver, replaced the pound, which has depreciated rapidly because of the country's 111% annual rate of inflation. The monetary rate of exchange: ten old pounds for one shekel, which is worth 25 U.S. cents.
Finance Minister Yigael Hurvitz called the currency changeover a "mere technicality," but it was clearly more than that. Psychologically, the government hoped, the introduction of a new...
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