Æ15 - Ebana

Ebana ruled Aksum during the mid-fifth century, a period when the kingdom maintained active Red Sea trade networks connecting the Mediterranean world to India. The gold-plated bronze technique used for this issue — a thin gilded layer over a bronze core — was a deliberate Aksumite convention for lower-denomination coinage, distinguishing purchasing tiers within a sophisticated trimetallic system of gold, silver, and bronze that few contemporary African polities could match.