25 Santeem - Hailé Selassié I

This coin was struck in 1944 — Ethiopian calendar year 1936 — as part of a broader recoinage effort following the restoration of Haile Selassie's rule after Italian occupation ended in 1941. The Philadelphia Mint produced the issue under contract, a common arrangement for Ethiopia at the time given the absence of a domestic mint facility.

The brass composition was a practical wartime substitution, copper-nickel having been diverted to Allied munitions production throughout the early 1940s.