The 2012 date on this note marks a reissue of the series first introduced in 1997, the year the nakfa itself was launched — named after the northern town that served as a strategic base for the Eritrean People's Liberation Front during the thirty-year independence war. The nakfa replaced the Ethiopian birr at par, a deliberately political act that completed Eritrea's monetary separation from Ethiopia following the 1993 independence referendum.
Giesecke & Devrient have handled Eritrean banknote production since the currency's inception, an arrangement that has remained stable despite the country's increasing international isolation through the 2000s.
The 2012 date on this note marks a reissue of the series first introduced in 1997, the year the nakfa itself was launched — named after the northern town that served as a strategic base for the Eritrean People's Liberation Front during the thirty-year independence war. The nakfa replaced the Ethiopian birr at par, a deliberately political act that completed Eritrea's monetary separation from Ethiopia following the 1993 independence referendum.
Giesecke & Devrient have handled Eritrean banknote production since the currency's inception, an arrangement that has remained stable despite the country's increasing international isolation through the 2000s.