Recently I was lucky to acquire a lot of Israeli coins & medals. I was unsure of what exactly I was going to receive when I bid for it but I figured I would take the risk since some of the items looked pretty interesting. It was hard to identify the exact contents of the lot as the images the seller took were pretty bad and taken from a distance. Either way I decided to bid on the lot and was happy to win it way under what I was willing to spend.
Lot arrived yesterday and I finally had a chance to go thru it and explore...
I was pleasantly surprised with the contents. There are many great coins and medals in this lot. One of these great medals are in my mind such an amazing find that I figured I'd share it with the community.
As many of you know I am an Israel/Palestine coin enthusiast and am very proud of my collection and variety that I am fortunate to own. So you can understand my excitement when I found this.
Below are images of a State Medal of Israel that was part of this lot.
I have seen the reverse of this medal (united Jerusalem scene) many times and actually own another medal with the exact design in a larger diameter size (see image below). So at first I thought this was the same design. However I was surprised when I flipped it over and saw a total different design from the medal I own. As you can see from above images it states
"
With Compliments
Y. Rabin
Prime Minister
Of Israel
"
This really peaked my interest so I did some research and came up with the following.
The Israel Mint produced these medals for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel to give to other heads of states or other dignitaries. This medal was actually given to someone by the late prime minister of Israel! To me this was just.... WOW!
According to the Israel Mint site (link to exact medal) only 108 were minted in the bronze version with another 142 in the silver version.
My version was in a key-ring setting so I was initially sad that someone tampered with it. However upon reading the description on the Israel mint site I was happy to learn the following:
"The Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation had issued special medals for the Prime Ministers Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin. The medals were minted in limited quantities and intended to be awarded to Heads of State and other people of high distinction among the nations as a gift from the Prime Minister of Israel. Most of the medals were issued in the form of a key inside a ring - an opening at the top for a chain. Some were issued as regular medals."
I found further information online with images of what these key-rings look like and they are just as mine. Online values for this medal range from $250-400. Being that this was actually something that Y. Rabin held in his hands there is no way I would sell it anyways so the value is not too important.
Other similar medal I own
Images I found online of the keyring version of the Y. Rabin medal
Anyhow.... I am just very excited with my find and had to share it with others...
Aaron
