Catalog
5 Birr / Ethiopian Dollars
| Issuer | State Bank of Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1956-1959 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Dollars (፭ ብር) |
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| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of Emperor Haile Selassie I in military uniform at right, set against a fine guilloche underprint in orange. A vignette of Addis Ababa University (formerly Haile Selassie I University) occupies the centre-left, flanked by ornate lathe-work borders. Bilingual inscriptions in Amharic and English appear above and below, with the Governor's signature and title printed in the centre field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | የኢትዮጵያ፡መንግስት፡ባንክ፡ አምስት፡የኢትዮጵያ፡ብር፡ Five Ethiopian Dollars ላምጪው፡አንዴከፈል፡ሕግ፡ያሰገዽዷል። Payable to the Bearer on Demand State Bank of Ethiopia (Translation: State Bank of Ethiopia Five Ethiopian Birr Payable to the Bearer on Demand) |
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| Comments |
The State Bank of Ethiopia was itself a transitional institution — established in 1942 as both the central bank and the commercial bank of the country, it was eventually split into two separate entities in 1963. These notes fall squarely in that window when a single body handled the full range of banking functions for the empire. Bradbury Wilkinson, the New Malden firm with longstanding contracts across African and Asian colonial and post-colonial issuers, produced the series under Pick 19 to a specification that retained the dual "Birr/Ethiopian Dollars" denomination wording — an acknowledgment of both domestic and foreign-facing usage.
The Ethiopian Dollar was pegged at 2 to the U.S. dollar throughout this period, a rate Haile Selassie's government maintained with some difficulty amid growing import costs.