SANTEEM: COIN OF ETHIOPIA
1 santeem, 1977: Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia
Coin of the FAO series (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Coins of this series were minted in many countries around the world (mostly during the second half of the 20th century).
Date on coin: 1969 by the Ethiopian calendar (፲፱፻፷፱: Amharic) = 1977 (Gregorian calendar).1 አንድ:ሳንቲም: one santeem.
A farmer at work with two oxen.
ኢትዮጵያ: Ethiopia.
፲፱፻፷፱: 1969.
Stylised roaring lion as symbol of Ethiopia.
Coin design: Stuart Devlin — Australian artist and metalworker who specialized in gold and silver and was well known as a designer of coins for countries around the world.
Mintage: 35.034.000.
The coin is made of aluminum-magnesium alloy, which is quite rare in numismatics.
- Aluminium-magnesium: 17 mm - 0.6 g
- Reference price: 0.4$
COIN SANTEEM — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- ETHIOPIA, 1944-... (Ethiopian Empire + Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia + Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia): santeem = 1/100 birr
SANTEEM as coin name. Since 1976, the birr officially became the currency of Ethiopia, each of which consisted of 100 santeem. Sometimes the name of the exchange coin is written in Latin as santim or even cent. However, authoritative numismatic catalogs list the name of the coin as santeem. In the Amharic language, the denomination on the coin is indicated as "ሳንቲም", which can literally be translated simply as "coin".
The name comes from the French coin "centime", that is, it indicates the equality of 100 such coins to the main monetary unit — in this case, the birr.
To be honest, it was not possible to find an explanation of the reasons why the Ethiopian coin in Western (English-speaking) sources received exactly this name — santeem (instead of the more logical, usual — cent).
