First, a brief history of Ethiopian money: Menelik II ascended to the Abyssinian throne in 1889 and ruled until his death in 1913. He introduced the first local currency, called the Birr, to replace the foreign Maria Theresa thaler and the use of salt blocks for transactions. Coins were minted by 1894, at units of 1 birr, with fractions of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc, 1 birr = 1 MT thaler. To speed the replacement of the MT thaler, a proclamation in 1908 decreed that the birr would be the only legal currency (however, thalers continued to be widely popular through the end of WWII). The fractions of the birr were changed to a decimal system in 1931 when Emperor Haile Selassie (formerly Ras Tafari Makonnen) ascended the throne, at units of 1 birr, and 50, 25, 10, 5, and 1 santim (centime in French, cent in English). During the 1936-1941 Italian occupation the lira was introduced (1 birr = 5 lira), and after liberation in 1941 until 1945 the East African shilling was used. Then in 1945 the birr was officially reinstated. If you have ever looked at an Ethiopian coin, you will see an extra digit in the date (example below of a 10 santim coin and a close up of the date). This is because the Amharic number system goes only 1-10, then multipules of 10 (20, 30, 40, 6000, etc). So what does that mean? The fifth digit, which turns out to be in the middle, is a 100 multiplier, and as an attachment I provide a number translater. You will see that the digits translate as such: 10 - 9 - 100 - 30 - 6 The applicable formula to convert this is (10+9)*100 + (30+6) = 1900 + 36 = 1936. But we're not finished yet! Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar, which is 7 years, 8 months behind the Gregorian date. The Ethiopian year begins on September 11 of the Gregorian year. So the date of 1936 is either 7 or 8 years older, as it turns out this coin is from 1944. Fortunately, many 20th century Ethiopian coins have 'frozen dates' (like the MT thaler), so you can cheat by just memorizing a few numerical sequences... If you survived this post until now, here are some references - http://www.nbe.gov.et/History/history_notesandcoins.htm http://www.wbcc.fsnet.co.uk/af-eth.htm http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ExplainingTheEthiopicNumberingSystemAndATinyLessonOnAmharic.aspx
Acanthite,that is a very interesting posting.The Ethiopian dates are indicated in the Krause & Pick catalogues with the letters 'EE' before the date. The term 'Abyssinia' was commonly used prior to World War II,but 'Ethiopia' became the usual name,as 'Abyssinia' is actually an Italianisation,given the fact that the Ethiopians gave the Italians a bashing at the Battle of Adowa in 1896. Aidan.
Thanks, Aidan, I completely forgot to mention the EE designation to indicate Ethiopian calendar year. What is interesting about Menelik II and the Italians in the 1890's is that striking its own coins was one of the ways Ethiopia showed its rebellion against Italian efforts to undercut Ethiopian independence. The later were attempting to do this through unclear treaty terms.
Acanthite,the Ethiopian calendar is still in use today,especially by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.Here's a link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Church . Aidan.
