This is a small one-cent piece from Ethiopia, dated 1936 EE (Ethiopian Era). That would translate as 1944 A.D., although this date was “frozen” and it was used on coins until 1975. The obverse depicts Haile Selassie I, the last of the Solomonic emperors who, according to legend, ruled Ethiopia more-or-less continuously since the time of King Solomon. He was booted out by the military in the 70s. I think it’s a pretty little coin. Anyway, I have a question. The Krause collector’s guide that I’m using lists these coins as having a total mintage of 20,000. This seems like a very small amount for a small denomination coin that was minted over three decades. I suspect this is an error. Does anyone have any resource that list another mintage total for this coin? I’d appreciate your input.
Every time I see my avatar here I think, "Oh, sheesh, I need to change that." I've never noticed any Lennon similarities.
Bluegill your krause is right but you are reading it wrong. It will say 20.000 and that means 20 million not 20 thousand
I love old Ethiopian Coins...Here is a quick history of the Last Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari Makonnen)...The lion of Judah. I wear a version of this coin around my neck. It has a loop rather roughly soldered on the coin to make a pendant. I think it was made by a rastafarian.... http://www.cachecoins.org/ethiopia.htm
Thanks Drusus, I enjoyed that. I don't have much, but what coins I do have from Ethiopia, I love. richie
I've been using Collecting World Coins, Tenth Edition, by Krause and Mishler. The mintage listed is 20,000, and it doesn't say anything about adding two more zeroes. The coin listed above it is KM#27, one matona (1931 A.D.), mintage 1,250,000. Adding two zeroes would make it 125,000,000. Please let me know if I'm really reading this wrong! Thank you, Kiwi, and Bart, and everyone else. 20 million makes more sense. But I think my 20,000 listing is an error--I haven't seen anything else that makes me think I need to be adding zeroes. Thanks!
Bluegill, my Krause World Coins catalog has 2 designations for mintages that they use. If the mintage has a coma it's the actual mintage but if the mintage has a decimal point than you have to add 3 zeros to the mintage. Lou
The mintage could well be an error in your book (I have seen more errors in Krause books). The actual mintages for the coins of your series are: KM#32, 1 cent = 20 millions; KM#33, 5 cents = 219 millions; KM#34, 10 cents = almost 349 millions; KM#35, 25 cents = 10 millions, but only 452,000 issued and withdrawn to be replaced by KM#36, with a mintage of 30 millions. So, except of the 25 cents KM#35, this is not a rare series and you can see these regularly. The coin of Drusus is not the copper KM#27 1 matona, but the nickel KM#31 50 matonas, with a mintage of 1,621,000 .