5 Thalers / Birr

The Bank of Ethiopia, established in 1931 as the first indigenous bank on the African continent, issued this note under Haile Selassie's early consolidation of state financial institutions — breaking a decades-long grip that the Bank of Abyssinia (a foreign-controlled concession) had held over Ethiopian currency. The dual denomination in Thalers and Birr reflects the transition period, with the Maria Theresa Thaler still functioning as the dominant trade coin in circulation alongside the domestically issued paper.

Bradbury Wilkinson produced the series at New Malden. Within four years of issue, Italian invasion and occupation rendered the entire Bank of Ethiopia note series void, and surviving examples were never redeemable.