ETHIOPIAN DOLLAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22718, 2 November 1935, Page 16

ETHIOPIAN DOLLAR

CONTROLLED BY ITALY Events in Ethiopia have brought to light another chapter in the many-chap-tered history of the famous old coin, the Maria Theresa dollar, says the New York Times. This handsome Austrian relic has not been legal tender in Austria since 1854, but the "Vienna Mint has continued to manufacture it to order for use in a few African and Arabian countries which have not until lately had currencies of their own. For the last 50 years the number of these countries has been steadily diminishing. All along the North African coast from Algiers to Egypt, the Maria Theresa dollar has ceased to be legal tender. _ Across the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia its import was forbidden six years ago and since then it has been demonetised. Even in Ethiopa it has to face the competition of the young Menelek dollar and the bank notes of the Bank, of Ethiopia, a branch of the National Bank of Egypt. But outside the more sophisticated circles of the capital it has remained the traditional Ethiopian currency. It is about twice the size and half the value of a United States silver dollar. It bears on one side the old Austrian double-headed eagle and on the other the head of the Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa, and the'year 1780 in which sh« died—always the same year. A thousand of these coins, worth roughly £IOO, weigh a good 601 b, and, as small chanze is a matter of barter, they are usually augmented with salt and cartridges. It is not reported as a new chapter in their history that three years ago an international group obtained the monopoly right to buy the coins from the Vienna Mint and shortly afterwards sold tlie right to a bie Italian bank. This bank now controls the supply of Maria Theresa dollars at its source, and it is interesting to note that no dollars have figured in the Austrian export statistics since 1932 —although this of course cannot be accepted as conclusive evidence that the supply has been stopped, for the silver may have been shipped in from Italy, minted in Vienna, and shipped out again. But it may be assumed that production has at least decreased in the last 10 years. As recently as 1927 the mint produced 15,000,000 of these coins. But that was before the slump set in. Quite apart from developments in Ethiopia, the slump could not help but reduce the demand. Normally, the demand comeg not only from Ethiopia but from the Persian Gulf, and even from Afghanistan.