World coins chat: Eritrea & Aksum

Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa bordering Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The area was already known to the ancient Egyptians. Centuries later the Kingdom of Aksum covered most of Eritrea. In the 16th century it became part of the Ottoman Empire but quickly after the Ottomans were repelled and the Aussa Sultanate was established.

In the late 19th century the Italians took control and formally founded the colony of Eritrea in 1890. A lot of industry was developed by the Italians, and many Italians settled in the colony, especially during Benito Mussolini's rule. In 1936 Ethiopia was conquered by Italy and merged with Eritrea and Somalia into Italian East Africa. In 1941 the British drove the Italians out of their east African colonies and restored Ethiopia's independence in 1944 but continued to govern Eritrea. In 1952 it was decided to unify Ethiopia and Eritrea into a federation, without consulting the Eritreans. When Haile Selassie decided to to dissolve the Eritrean parliament in 1961 the Eritrean War of Independence started that lasted 30 years. In 1992 a referendum was held where a vast majority of Eritreans supported independence. In 1993 Eritrea gained international recognition as an independent country.

In 1998 a border war was fought with Ethiopia and was eventually mediated by the UN. Currently Eritrea is one of the harshest dictatorships in Africa and many refugees try to reach Europe.

Italian Eritrea introduced the Tallero, worth 5 Lire ($0.96 or 4 Shillings), in 1895. The Tallero was modeled after the Maria Theresa Thaler, but its silver content was slightly lower, with the MTT worth 5.60 Lire. In 1925 the Tallero was replaced by the Italian Eritrean Lira which was at par with the Italian Lira.

The British introduced the East African Shilling in 1941, and after Ethiopian annexation in 1952 the Birr was used. After independence the Eritrean Nakfa was introduced, named after the town of Nakfa that played an important role during the independence war. The Nakfa was pegged to the USD at 15 ERN/$ but not freely convertible. In 2013 it was revalued to 10/$, a large appreciation. It is not unlikely that black market rates are in a very different territory.

Aksum coins:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/aksum-1.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/erythree-1.html

Eritrea has the second-worst freedom of the press in the world, after North Korea, of course.


Italian colonial coins are very expensive and frequently faked, so all I have from Eritrea are these modern 1997 issues. Eritrea is a very militarized country (that's how they fought the Ethiopians to a tie despite Ethiopia being much larger), so every coin has a bunch of soldiers on it.

Likewise, only have a couple modern coins.

To complete your coins, I've the 1 cent, 5 cents & 10 cents (again)

These 1997 coins have the 1991 'birth' of a nation date which confused me initially.



And yes those old 'Italian' Eritrea coins are cool but very pricey...thanks for the 'might be faked' tip!

Quote: "jeejaw"​I just purchased a 5-pack of Eritrea coins, from the 1 cent all the way up to the 100 cent. It took me a while to find them as the coins are all STAMPED with 1991 but this site says they are 1997. I see the comments here...not sure if I have fakes, there's a website typo (1997 should read 1991) or what.
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​The date is one the side with the denomination on the top right corner. Yours looked correct to me.

Matt

Yah thanks Myeackle, I JUST figured that out and was going back to edit my post. Now I'm going to re-read the 'fake' comments.

I had this arrive last week - won on an eBay auction for £0.99!