After the introduction of the new 2 shekel coin (nicknamed shtekel, or shnekel by others) last month, the Bank of Israel announced at the beginning of this month that they were going to cancel a different coin.

The BOI has now announced the demise of the 5 agora coin. If you have been stockpiling these coins somewhere, you can no longer use them to pay bills, go to the supermarket or anything else. I wonder if you can get away with giving them to the meshulachim who come to the door.... hmmmm....

But do not throw them away. Until 2011 they will still be honored at the Bank of Israel and you can exchange them for higher levels of currency.

If you go to a store and find prices still using increments that have no coins associated with them, such as .02 or .05, or the like, not to worry. The BOI has established that all prices below .05 will round down (17.02 will round down to 17.00 for example), and all prices above .05 (including .05) will round up (17.05 will round up to 17.10, for example).

The main reason for canceling the 5 agora coin, the BOI says, is the rising cot of production. It has been costing the government 16 agorot to produce each 5 agora coin!