5 Santeem - Hailé Selassié I

Ethiopia's coinage was suspended entirely during the Italian occupation of 1936–1941, and when Haile Selassie returned from exile in London, rebuilding a functioning monetary system was among his first administrative priorities. This series, introduced in 1944, was the first coinage struck under imperial authority after liberation — produced at the Philadelphia Mint under a contract arrangement that continued through much of the issue's run.

The Ethiopian calendar's Ge'ez numeral system appears on these pieces alongside Western numerals, a dual-dating convention that occasionally confuses attribution.