Talari - Haile Selassie I

The 1931 Ethiopian talari was issued in the third year of Haile Selassie's reign, shortly after his coronation in November 1930 — an event attended by foreign dignitaries including Evelyn Waugh, whose sardonic dispatches helped introduce the emperor to a global readership. The coin was struck to assert imperial continuity with the Maria Theresa thaler tradition that had dominated Ethiopian commerce for over a century, while simultaneously projecting a modernizing dynastic image.

Catalogued under the X# prefix, indicating a non-circulating or pattern-adjacent issue rather than a mainstream circulation strike. Struck at a European mint, almost certainly in small quantities.