Coinage, Ezana's Conversion, and the Obelisks of Aksum

King Endubis, around 270-300 CE, issued the first known Aksumite coins, in gold, silver, and bronze, making Aksum one of the few states of late antiquity — alongside Rome, Persia, and later the early Islamic world — to mint its own regular coinage. Gold coinage was aimed mainly at long-distance international trade with Rome/Byzantium and Arabia, while bronze and silver circulated more internally for everyday transactions; inscriptions were rendered in both Ge'ez and Greek, reflecting the kingdom's commercial bilingualism, and the weight and purity of Aksumite gold followed Roman-Byzantine monetary standards, which facilitated exchange with distant trading partners.