Soldiers with the national flag of Eritrea and date 1991 (not an issue date) are symbolizing the struggle for independence from Ethiopia.

The Eritrean War of Independence was a conflict fought between the Ethiopian government and Eritrean separatists, both before and during the Ethiopian Civil War. The war started when Eritrea's autonomy within Ethiopia, where troops were already stationed, was revoked.

Eritrea had become part of Ethiopia after World War II, when both territories were liberated from Italian occupation. The war went on for 30 years until 1991, when the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) defeated the Ethiopian forces in Eritrea, and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), with the help of the EPLF, took control of Ethiopia and removed the Marxist–Leninist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Red-fronted gazelle right divides denomination. Date on right.

The red-fronted gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons), a species of gazelle, is widely but unevenly distributed across the middle of Africa from Senegal to northeastern Ethiopia. It is mainly resident in the Sahel zone, a narrow cross-Africa band south of the Sahara, where it prefers arid grasslands, wooded savannas and shrubby steppes.

The male and female red-fronted gazelles are similar in size, and both have s-curved horns. It has a light red-brown color around its whole body, except for its white underside and rump. It has a distinct, thin (2–4 cm (0.79–1.57 in) high) black band that runs from the elbow to the stifle (hind leg). Its face is bordered by a pair of white stripes that run from the eye to the corner of the mouth, which are more distinct than the pale white stripes that run down the face of the red gazelle, an animal commonly confused for it. It has a black tufted tail.