100 Dollars Pteranodon

Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia in May 1993 after a 30-year armed conflict — one of Africa's longest liberation wars — and the Bank of Eritrea was established almost immediately as part of asserting the new state's institutional existence. These early gold issues, including the dinosaur-themed series, were produced not for domestic circulation but for the international collector market, a revenue strategy common among newly independent nations with limited foreign exchange. The Pteranodon, technically a flying reptile rather than a dinosaur, appears in several such collector series of the period with no particular connection to Eritrean natural history.