If you are familiar with Greek, you will no doubt notice substantial similarities in letter
names and in the order of the alphabet.
Note that there are two versions of some letters. "Khaf", "Mem", "Nun", "Pe" and "Tzade" all
are written differently when they appear at the end of a word than when they appear in the
beginning or middle of the word. The version used at the end of a word is referred to as Final
"Khaf", Final "Mem", etc. The version of the letter on the left is the final version. In all
cases except Final "Mem", the final version has a long tail.
The "Kh" and the "Ch" are pronounced as in German or Scottish, a throat clearing noise,
"Alef" through "Yod" have the values 1 through 10. "Yod" through "Qof" have the values 10
through 100, counting by 10s. "Qof" through "Tav" have the values 100 through 400, counting by
100s. Final letters have the same value as their non-final counterparts.
The order of the letters is irrelevant to their value; letters are simply added to determine
the total numerical value. The number 11 could be written as "Yod-Alef", "Alef-Yod", "Heh-Vav",
"Dalet-Dalet-Gimel" or many other combinations of letters.
In the israeli coins from 1981 full dates appear on the coins, but sometimes are assumed in
the dating of coins, and in general as well. Thus, the year 5735 (1975) for example, apears as
735 (and not 5,735) with the two first caracters from the rigth indicating the number of years
in hundreds ("tav"=400 + "shin"=300), The next is "lamed" (= 30) followed by a separation mark
which has the appearance of double quotation marks, then "he" (= 5).
The separation mark, generally similar to a double quotation marks, serves
the purpose of indicating that the letters form a number, not a hebrew word.
For historical background and further reading, see Numeral Systems.
The Hebrew Alphabet:
The Hebrew use a different alphabet than English. The Hebrew alphabet is often called the
'alefbet', because of its first two letters. Note that Hebrew is written from right to left,
rather than left to right as in English, so "Alef" is the first letter of the 'alefbet' and
"Tav" is the last. The picture below illustrates the 'alefbet', in Hebrew alphabetical order:
not as the "ch" in "chair".
Numerical Values:
Each letter in the 'alefbet' has a numerical value. These values can be used to write numbers,
as the Romans used some of their letters (I, V, X, L, C, M) to
represent numbers.
The number 11 would be rendered "Yod-Alef", the number 12 would be "Yod-Bet", the number 21
would be "Kaf-Alef", the word Torah (Tav-Vav-Resh-He) has the numerical value 611, etc.
The only significant oddity in this pattern is the number 15, which if rendered as 10+5
would be a name of God, so it is normally written "Tet-Vav" (9+6).
Coins dating and the conversion from hebrew calendar to christian calendar:
Modern Israel's coins carry hebrew dating formed from a combination of the
22 consonant letters of the hebrew alphabet and read from rigth to left.
The hebrew new year falls in september or october by christian calendar reckoning.
The hebrew calendar is 3,760 years greater than the christian dating. For example, 1992 is
5752 according to the jewish calendar.
So... the hebrew calendar dates back more that five milleniums (5,000).
In total: 400+300+30+5=735. Very simple...:)
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