10 Thalers / Birr

The Bank of Abyssinia was not an Ethiopian institution in any meaningful sovereign sense — it was established in 1905 as a concession granted to the National Bank of Egypt, itself under heavy British influence, and operated largely as a foreign commercial instrument for the first decade of its existence. Ethiopian authorities had limited control over its note-issuing function until the bank was finally nationalized and reconstituted as the Bank of Ethiopia in 1931.

Bradbury Wilkinson produced the plates for the full series. The dual denomination — Thalers and Birr — reflects the awkward coexistence of Maria Theresa Thalers, which dominated trade currency across the Horn of Africa well into the twentieth century, with the domestic birr unit.