What to spend your shekels on
Single train ticket from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv
25 ILS
Ice-cold bottle of beer
30 ILS
Entrance to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
50 ILS
Lunch out in Tel Aviv
70 ILS
Trip to and tour around the Dead Sea
350 ILS
A brand new kind of shekel
The Israeli new shekel was introduced in 1986, replacing the old shekel that had been in circulation for five years. Each single shekel is made up of 100 agorot. You may also see ‘shekel’ spelt ‘sheqel’, while the plural is ‘shekalim’.
When it comes to tipping, around 12% of the bill is quite common in restaurants; it might seem a little bit rude to leave nothing at all. It is often preferred that you leave a tip in cash rather than rounding up your credit card bill. Unusually, it is not expected that you tip taxi drivers at all; doing so would seem exceptionally generous.
Commonly used banknotes
There are four main banknotes that are used in Israel, to the value of 20 (green), 50 (purple), 100 (brown) and 200 (red) ILS. A new series of notes depicting different figures and scenes – as well as exerts from famous poems, are expected to roll out in 2015. They will be to the same value as the current ones, although the colours may also change. The new style of the 50 ILS note has already been introduced into circulation, and the rest will follow shortly.
Buying Israel shekels online is easy
Free next-day home delivery on orders over £500