1 Santeem FAO

Issued under the FAO's "Food for All" campaign, this coin was part of a coordinated global push in the 1970s to use circulating coinage as agricultural propaganda — dozens of nations struck FAO-themed pieces simultaneously, most of them tiny aluminum fractions that saw hard daily use and survive in quantity only in low grades. Ethiopia's participation reflected the bitter irony of the timing: the country was entering a period of recurring famine that would culminate in the catastrophic 1983–85 crisis, killing an estimated one million people.