ETHIOPIA
Two things....
A Military Token
A Medal of Significance to all of Africa
Medal for the Conference of Heads of African States of
May 1963. (Image thanks to Lauri Palmu, scaled at 100dpi.)
ETHIOPIA
Two things....
Medal for the Conference of Heads of African States of
May 1963. (Image thanks to Lauri Palmu, scaled at 100dpi.)
This medallic piece commemorates and is inscribed "CONFERENCE OF HEADS OF AFRICAN STATES ADDIS ABABA MAY 1963". In 1963 quite a number of African nations were newly independent, many others were aiming to become independent. Perhaps if this piece had been made after the conference (which I would, rightly or wrongly, assume not to be the case) then it would have made mention of the great achievement of this conference - the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25th May 1963.
In 2002 the OAU was replaced/superceded by the "African Union" , but Africa, very almost as a whole, continues to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the OAU with “Africa Day” on the 25th of May every year.
This medal is of Silver and is 65mm in diameter. A few more bits of information on the piece can be found in the “Medals” section of Lauri Palmu's site:- Ethiopian coins and medals
A Token for a U.S. Military Club in Ethiopia (scaled to
200dpi)
This is the only
Ethiopia token I have. The obverse shows, centrally, the right facing
Ethiopian lion, all encircled, with “L’AMERICAN CLUB” arched below and
the same legend, but in Amharic, arched above. The reverse shows only
the denomination, centrally, as "5¢". The piece is Brass, has a
plain edge, a diameter of just over 0.835 inches and a mass of 4.85
grams. The “L’American Club” tokens were used in the club's slot
machines in lieu of normal U.S. coins, the stated diameter of the 5
Cent coin is 0.835 inches (21.21mm) and their mass 5.00 grams.
This piece is listed in
two references – firstly Gill (1)
and secondly Cunningham (2).
For Ethiopia, Gill catalogues not only coinage but also a number of
imperial medallic pieces and various earlier tokens including those
with French legends that are listed in the “Standard Catalog of World
Coins” as KM-Tn1 to KM-Tn5. The Gill reference for this club token is
Gill-Tk7. Cunningham catalogues mess and various other club tokens
produced for use by the U.S. military outside of the U.S.A. The tokens
are from most parts of the world, many being for bases in the Far East,
even a few for England, U.K. For Africa the book lists tokens from not
only Ethiopia but also Algeria, Libya and Morocco.
Unfortunately I have
neither of these references but I found plenty of information about
“L’American Club” on the page
http://www.ethi-usmappingmission.com/217661/index.html . This military
club was that of the “Ethiopia - United States Mapping Mission” in
Addis Ababa. This page is part of a website dedicated to all those who
served in this mission. The page includes, in full colour, the club
logo as seen on the obverse of the 5 Cent token. The club logo is
evidently a development of the mission’s badge. The “Ethiopia - United
States Mapping Mission”, existed from 1963 to 1970, the club was first
built in January 1966. So 1966 is the earliest time that the token
would have been issued.
(1)
Gill, Dennis: The Coinage of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italian Somalia. New
York. Published by Dennis Gill., 1991.
(2) Cunningham, Paul A.,
Military Tokens of the United States: Volume 2 (Overseas Issues).
Tecumseh, Michigan: Michigan Exonomia Publishers, 1998.
This page started with "A Medal of
Significance to all of Africa" at
February 2004.
Added "A Military Token" at July 2008.