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5 Birrs Arms with plough, White hatched sides
| Issuer | National Bank of Ethiopia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1987 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Birr (1976-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette to the right shows a farmer in intaglio style harvesting coffee branches, with coffee beans and foliage rendered in fine detail. At upper left, the arms of Ethiopia with a plough appear above the "ETHIOPIA TIKDEM" legend, with hatched side panels framing the design. The serial number appears twice in brown ink, with bilingual inscriptions in Amharic and English across the upper and central registers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Ethiopia's 1987 note series was issued under the Derg regime, the military junta that had governed the country since Haile Selassie's overthrow in 1974. By this point the regime was fighting simultaneously against Eritrean secessionists in the north and Tigrayan rebels pushing toward Addis Ababa — a dual insurgency that would ultimately end the Derg in 1991. That the National Bank continued contracting Thomas De La Rue in London throughout this period reflects how few alternatives existed for high-security banknote production, ideology notwithstanding.
The white hatched side panels are a straightforward anti-counterfeiting measure, characteristic of De La Rue's intaglio work of the period.