1/8 Birr - Menelik II

Menelik II ordered this coinage in 1895 through the Paris Mint, establishing Ethiopia's first modern indigenous silver currency just as Italian military pressure from Eritrea was intensifying. The timing was deliberate — a sovereign currency was as much a political declaration as a practical one. The coins arrived in-country immediately before the Battle of Adwa in March 1896, where Ethiopian forces decisively defeated the Italian army, the only successful African military repulsion of a European colonial campaign during the Scramble for Africa.

The Paris Mint contract specified .835 fineness, matching French monetary standards of the period — a pragmatic choice that eased valuation against Maria Theresa thalers already circulating in Ethiopian trade.