Catalog
10 Birr Arms with plough, Red sides
| Issuer | National Bank of Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1977 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette portrays a young woman engaged in traditional basket weaving, rendered in intaglio against a red guilloche underprint that frames the entire note. The National Bank of Ethiopia inscription appears in both Amharic and English at the top, with the denomination expressed as TEN BIRR in large letterpress text to the left of the vignette. A lion's head medallion appears at lower left within a circular cartouche bearing the ETHIOPIA TIKDEM motto, while a decorative woven basket is positioned to the right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The central vignette presents a farmer operating a tractor and plough across an agricultural field, set within a landscape of rolling hills, rendered in red-brown intaglio engraving. A traditional Ethiopian thatched hut vignette occupies the left panel, while the state arms appear in a circular medallion at the right. Denomination numerals and Amharic inscriptions are placed at the upper corners and lower left, all against a light guilloche underprint. |
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| Comments |
Ethiopia's 1977 banknote series was issued under the Derg military government, which had deposed Haile Selassie in 1974 and was in the process of dismantling the imperial monetary identity — hence the replacement of the emperor's portrait with national emblems and agricultural imagery. The decision to retain Thomas De La Rue as printer despite the regime's Marxist-Leninist orientation was purely pragmatic; no domestic printing capacity existed, and Soviet-bloc alternatives were not yet in play.
P#32 is the first 10 Birr issue under the new republic. The watermark is a simple repeated pattern, consistent with De La Rue's economical security specification for lower-denomination African contracts of this period.