British West Africa was never a single colony but an administrative fiction — a collective designation for Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, whose monetary unification required a purpose-built coinage independent of any individual territorial authority. The West African Currency Board, established in 1912, would eventually formalize this arrangement, making the 1911 issue a transitional stroke issued just ahead of that body's founding.
KM#5 in copper-nickel replaced an earlier holed bronze type, the hole having been dropped partly due to manufacturing concerns and partly to align with broader imperial coinage conventions.
British West Africa was never a single colony but an administrative fiction — a collective designation for Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, whose monetary unification required a purpose-built coinage independent of any individual territorial authority. The West African Currency Board, established in 1912, would eventually formalize this arrangement, making the 1911 issue a transitional stroke issued just ahead of that body's founding.
KM#5 in copper-nickel replaced an earlier holed bronze type, the hole having been dropped partly due to manufacturing concerns and partly to align with broader imperial coinage conventions.