Eritrea's 1997 coinage series was among the first issued under the Bank of Eritrea following independence from Ethiopia in 1993, replacing the Ethiopian birr that had circulated during the long occupation. The nakfa, introduced in November 1997, was a deliberate severing of monetary ties with Addis Ababa — a point of particular tension given that Ethiopia had just lost its Red Sea coastline entirely through Eritrean independence and bitterly opposed the new currency's introduction.
The timing proved volatile. Within months, the two countries were at war again, fighting from 1998 to 2000 in a border conflict that killed tens of thousands.
Eritrea's 1997 coinage series was among the first issued under the Bank of Eritrea following independence from Ethiopia in 1993, replacing the Ethiopian birr that had circulated during the long occupation. The nakfa, introduced in November 1997, was a deliberate severing of monetary ties with Addis Ababa — a point of particular tension given that Ethiopia had just lost its Red Sea coastline entirely through Eritrean independence and bitterly opposed the new currency's introduction.
The timing proved volatile. Within months, the two countries were at war again, fighting from 1998 to 2000 in a border conflict that killed tens of thousands.