British West Africa was not a single colony but a collective monetary arrangement covering Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia — a currency union administered by the West African Currency Board, established in 1912. These earlier pieces predate the Board itself, issued instead under direct Crown authority during the transitional period when London was still working out how to unify four separate colonial economies under one coinage.
The 1/10 penny denomination was peculiar to this region, designed to interact with the local cowrie shell economy still functioning in parts of the interior.
British West Africa was not a single colony but a collective monetary arrangement covering Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia — a currency union administered by the West African Currency Board, established in 1912. These earlier pieces predate the Board itself, issued instead under direct Crown authority during the transitional period when London was still working out how to unify four separate colonial economies under one coinage.
The 1/10 penny denomination was peculiar to this region, designed to interact with the local cowrie shell economy still functioning in parts of the interior.