Issued under Haile Selassie's government in the name of Emperor Yohannes IV as part of a commemorative series marking the 1972 Ethiopian Numismatic Society convention, this coin belongs to a set celebrating Ethiopia's nineteenth-century rulers. Yohannes IV defeated the Egyptian army at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876 — two victories that secured Ethiopia's northern frontier — before dying at the Battle of Metemma in 1889 against Mahdist Sudanese forces, his death opening the succession crisis that brought Menelik II to power.
Issued under Haile Selassie's government in the name of Emperor Yohannes IV as part of a commemorative series marking the 1972 Ethiopian Numismatic Society convention, this coin belongs to a set celebrating Ethiopia's nineteenth-century rulers. Yohannes IV defeated the Egyptian army at Gundet in 1875 and Gura in 1876 — two victories that secured Ethiopia's northern frontier — before dying at the Battle of Metemma in 1889 against Mahdist Sudanese forces, his death opening the succession crisis that brought Menelik II to power.