Private gold coin - 14 K. 1989. One of the few copies in this form which were minted by the "General Bank of Israel" in various years from the 1970s -1990s - rare relic of private banking in the Land of Israel.
Obverse: the imprint year -"1989" - and "General Bank of Israel Ltd."
Reverse: Stamp of the Rothschild family and "General Bank of Israel Ltd."
Diameter: 22 mm. Weight: 7.93 grams. Diligent margins.
The rare coin is associated with Baron Rothschild and the history of the growth of private banking in the Land of Israel. In 1934, the businessman Alfonso Tzava (one of the richest people in the country at the time who worked in the field of investments and insurance) set up a private bank called "Bank of Israel for the Benefit of Credit Ltd." The bank employed five officials who handled accounts and loans to individuals and companies. And he was at 46 Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv, in a two-story building known as the "Fortress" or "Castle" due to the shape of his building (the building that currently houses the Sotheby's auction house). Alfonso Tzava served as the owner of the Bank of Eretz Israel for Credit Benefit for more than 30 years until 1964. In 1965, Baron Edmund de Rothschild, the grandson of the well-known benefactor, acquired the franchise to operate the bank from Alfonso Tzava, and changed his name to Bank Clali LeIsrael Ltd ., and moved to its new residence at the Platin Hotel at 28 Ahad Ha'am Street in Tel Aviv. The Bank continued to designate as a private banking specialist, with individual branches, which dedicates its services to a group of selected customers with high financial capabilities.
Beginning in the 1970s, the General Bank of Israel used to indicate work experience for employees. Every employee who completed 10 years of work at the bank received as a gift from the bank's management a gold coin of this type on which the year of awarding the coin and the owner's symbol of the Rothschild family was stamped. (The earliest known coin was given in 1975). The special coin was minted in the coin of the Government Currency Company using the most accurate private records that were later found in the basements of the bank. The estimated is that there are currently about 200-300 coins in the market from different years, most of which are still kept by the workers who received them. Employees who have completed 20 and 30 years of work at the bank were given expensive silver products such as candlesticks or menorahs.
Baron Rothschild held "General Bank of Israel" until 1996, when the ownership of the bank was transferred to the Investec Banking Group from South Africa and its name was changed to "Investec Bank (Israel) Ltd." (In Investec Bank continued the custom of minting special coins for employees, but this was done at the company Tzuchboy is of much poorer quality than compared to the years in which they were minted in Rothschild's General Bank of Israel Ltd.) In 2015, the bank merged with the International Bank and ceased to operate as a separate banking entity. (See attached material Dr. Adam Dvir's article on Rothschild's special gold coins).
