Bidspirit auction | 1960. eight grain 1 agora

1960. eight grain 1 agora pattern. type i. israel's classic rarity. after the ici mint in birmingham struck trial pieces the bank of israel committee did not approve of the left ear of corn which depicted 8 grains, they wanted that ear to show 10 grains. on this specimen the leaf joins the stalk at a point 1.10 mm from the bottom of the stalk on the left, while the grains are fat and wide. on the reverse the numeral 1 is 9.50 mm high on right edge and 1.80 mm wide at the mid point, while the merchaott (”) is large and between the two characters in a very large date. this is only the 3rd known type 1 eight grain pattern, the other two reside in the kagan-maremba collection which was donated to the jewish museum. this and the piece below are only 9th and 10th eight grain patterns known in 4 different types. see haffner (1970, pages 70-71), magnus-kagan (1988 pages ag-3 and ag-4), km-pn1. uncirculated with minor marks on denomination side. we very strongly believe that this and the following lot are from the collection of the ici mint. obviously of extreme rarity and perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity