5 Senti FAO

Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization coin program, which ran from the late 1960s through the 1970s and commissioned dozens of developing nations to mint low-denomination pieces carrying agricultural messaging. Somalia's participation came during the early years of Siad Barre's military government, which had seized power in 1969 and aligned the country with the Soviet Union through much of that decade. The FAO program effectively subsidized these issues, meaning the coins were produced with external funding rather than from Somalia's own monetary reserves.