Six coins covering Ethiopia’s entire circulating range, from the aluminium santeem to the bimetallic birr, gathered in one set. Each denomination tells its own story, and together they form a portrait of the country: farming, the army, industry and highland wildlife.

The five santeem coins continue the 1977 series designs by Australian medallist Stuart Devlin: a ploughman with a pair of oxen on the 1 santeem, a militiaman on a mountain road on the 5, the mountain nyala on the 10, workers before factory buildings on the 25 and a procession of five figures, «Solidarity», on the 50 santeem. Every obverse shows a roaring lion’s head and the legend «ኢትዮጵያ».

The sixth coin, the 1 birr, stands apart in both metal and design: a brass-plated steel centre in a nickel-plated steel ring, a lion on the obverse and scales on the reverse, with the denomination in Amharic and English. The santeem coins of the same period are likewise struck in plated steel rather than the brass and cupronickel of 1977.

The dates follow the Ethiopian calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one, a small puzzle for anyone handling the set for the first time. Uncirculated condition: the coins never circulated and keep their mint lustre. The set completes Ethiopia in a collection of African countries and gives a full denomination run without hunting down single coins.

A collection can grow in any direction, and the VPcoins catalogue has options for each of them.