HERE ARE VERTICAL PAIRS OF THE 1978 SERIES, FIFTY SHEKELS, DEPICTING A MAGNIFICENT ENGRAVING OF JERUSALEM'S GOLDEN GATE ( ONE OF THE 7 LEADING INTO THE HOLY CITY ), AND ON THE OBVERSE, DAVID BEN GURION* ISRAEL'S FIRST PRIME MINISTER, FULLY WATERMARKED AND NUMBERED. PRINTED IN HEBREW, ARABIC & ENGLISH.

*David Ben-Gurion was born on October 16, 1886, in the Russian part of Poland and originally named David Grun ( Ben Gurion, meaning the son of a lion ).

He first came to Palestine ( later to be called Israel ) in 1906, but to familiarize himself with the language and laws of the land, he studied at the University of Constantinople in 1912 and became an Ottoman citizen.

Shortly thereafter, during World War I he was banished by the Ottomans for subversive activities and narrowly escaped to New York. And when an American battalion of the Jewish Legion was formed under the auspices of the British Army, Ben-Gurion, naturally joined.

After the War, Ben-Gurion became a leader of the Zionist labor movement in Palestine and a founder of the Histadrut ( General Federation of Jewish Labor ) in 1920.

At the end of World War II, Ben-Gurion led a campaign to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, which had been under British mandate since 1920. When the British mandate was about to end in May 1948, with the Arab aggression towards Israel already in progress, Ben-Gurion urged an immediate declaration of independence for Israel on May 14, 1948. For the next 15 years Ben-Gurion was Israel's most renowned leader,serving as prime minister and defense minister until he retired in 1963.