50 Nakfa - Goliath Heron Dahlac

Eritrea's wildlife coin programs have largely targeted export markets — these pieces circulate nowhere near Asmara. The Goliath Heron, the world's largest living heron species at up to 152 cm tall, is found along Eritrea's Red Sea coast and the Dahlak Archipelago, which the country administers and which lends this issue its subtitle. The Dahlak islands were a significant trading hub in medieval Islamic commerce and later housed an Italian penal colony during the colonial period — an incongruous history for what is now marketed as pristine wildlife territory.