Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
400 Birr International Year of the Child, Piedfort
| Issuer | National Bank of Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1980 |
| Type | Coin pattern |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central field features the universal UNICEF International Year of the Child emblem: a stylized figure of an adult sheltering a child, framed by two laurel branches. Above the central device, the Ethiopian state emblem appears at the top of the field. The legend 'SOCIALIST ETHIOPIA' arcs along the left and right periphery in Latin script, while the Ge'ez inscription 'ኅብረተሰብአዊት ኢትዮጵያ' runs along the upper field. The date '1980' is inscribed at the base of the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | SOCIALIST ETHIOPIA ኅብረተሰብአዊት ኢትዮጵያ 1980 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The International Year of the Child was declared by the United Nations for 1979, and Ethiopia's participation in the commemorative coinage program was notable given the country was simultaneously enduring the brutal consolidation of Mengistu Haile Mariam's Derg regime — a government responsible for the Red Terror campaign that killed tens of thousands of Ethiopians, many of them children. The piedfort format, struck at double the normal flan thickness, was almost certainly produced for collector export rather than any domestic market.
At 62.2 grams, this is essentially a two-ounce gold piece. Mintages for Ethiopian piedfort issues of this period were extremely low.