10 Nakfa

Eritrea's first banknote series — of which this is part — was issued on November 8, 1997, exactly six years after the end of the independence war and two years after the nafka replaced the Ethiopian birr. The timing of the currency launch was politically deliberate: issuing a national currency was a direct assertion of economic separation from Ethiopia at a moment when relations between the two countries were already deteriorating toward the 1998–2000 border war.

Giesecke & Devrient had extensive experience printing currencies for newly independent African states. Clarence Holbert, the American designer credited on this series, also worked on notes for several other African issuers during the same period.