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1 Gersh - Menelik II
| Issuer | Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing draped bust effigy of Emperor Menelik II, wearing an elaborately decorated imperial crown adorned with horizontal bands and a central finial. The emperor's portrait is rendered in high relief, with a beaded necklace visible at the truncation. A circular Ge'ez legend surrounds the effigy, running along the inner border of a beaded rim. The denomination numeral appears in the lower field below the bust. |
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| Obverse script | Ge'ez (Ethiopic) |
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| Additional information |
Menelik II struck these coins in the immediate aftermath of Adwa — the Battle of Adwa in March 1896, where Ethiopian forces decisively defeated the Italian army and made Ethiopia the only African nation to successfully repel a European colonial conquest. The coinage that followed was a deliberate assertion of sovereign monetary authority by a ruler who had just humiliated a European power on the battlefield. The Birr series, of which this Gersh is a fractional unit, was produced at the Paris Mint under contract.