10 Matonas - Hailé Selassié I

The 1931 Ethiopian coinage series was issued the year Haile Selassie formally became Emperor, following his coronation on November 2, 1930 — an event attended by dignitaries from across Europe and which drew international press coverage that introduced Ethiopia to a global audience as a modern sovereign state. The matona denominations were part of a broader currency reform intended to rationalize a monetary system that had long depended on the Maria Theresa thaler, an Austrian trade coin that Ethiopian merchants had used for generations and which the government was now trying to displace.

The coins were struck in Paris at the Monnaie de Paris.