The poster for the exhibition is using elements of the Shamir designed 50 Lira banknote of 1959

On the money

60 years after it was issued, Shamir's pioneers banknote received a Renaissance. An entire exhibition was dedicated to it at the Porta Gallery in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv. Curators Carmit Shine and Tamar Lamdan invited 20 artists to draw their own contemporary versions on the bill. Visitors were also invited to paint or draw on prints of the banknote.

The pioneers bill was the last in a series of figures issued by the Bank of Israel in 1959. The Shamir brothers designed the borders of the banknotes and the figures. Jacob Zim drew sites and archaeological finds on the back of the note.

The characters were not statesmen or intellectuals as the bank chooses to use for its banknotes today, but rather people “from the street” invited to the photographer's studio by photographer Rudy Weisenstein. The Shamir brothers drew the character based on the photos. The Nahal girl soldier figure for a half-pound bill was merged from photographs of three girls. For the scientist figure on the ten-pound note, Weisenstein photographed himself.

The curators chose to focus on the pioneers bill, the only one with two characters - a young man and woman. At the event, the guest of honour was the 'pioneer' model, Tzruya Ronen, who brought her 1957 photograph with the 'pioneer' Aryeh Eyal.

The exhibition "On the Money" received wide media coverage.