What is the currency of Israel?

The currency of Israel is the Israeli new shekel.

Usually called the shekel or NIS, it has the ISO code ILS and the symbol ₪. One shekel is divided into 100 agorot. The currency is issued by the Bank of Israel and is used throughout the country for everyday payments.

The modern currency was introduced on 1 January 1986, replacing the heavily devalued old Israeli shekel at a ratio of 1,000 old shekels to 1 new shekel. Before that, Israel used the Israeli pound from 1952 to 1980 and the old shekel from 1980 to 1985.

The name reaches back to the ancient shekel, originally a unit of weight and later a form of money in the region. A common mix-up is confusing the new shekel with the Jordanian dinar or Egyptian pound, which are also used in parts of the Palestinian territories but are not Israel's currency.