Catalog
1/2 Penny - George V
| Issuer | British West Africa |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912-1936 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Mintage | 1912 H - - 3,120,000 1913 - - 1,382,000 1913 H - (fr) rare - 216,000 1914 - (fr) rare - 240,000 1914 H - - 586,000 1914 K - - 3,360,000 1914 K - Proof (issued in a double specimen set) - 1915 H - - 3,577,000 1916 H - - 4,046,000 1917 H - (fr) rare - 214,000 1918 H - - 490,000 1919 H - - 4,950,000 1919 KN - - 3,861,000 1920 H - - 26,285,000 1920 KN - - 13,844,000 1922 KN - (fr) rare - 5,817,000 1927 - - 528,000 1927 - Proof - 1929 - - 336,000 1929 - Proof - 1931 - (fr) rare - 96,000 1931 - Proof - 1932 - - 960,000 1932 - Proof - 1933 - - 2,122,000 1933 - Proof - 1934 - - 1,694,000 1934 - Proof - 1935 - - 3,271,000 1935 - Proof - 1936 - - 5,400,000 1936 - Proof - |
| Additional information |
British West Africa was a fiscal convenience rather than a political entity — a collective designation for the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, administered under a common currency to simplify colonial trade accounting. The West African Currency Board, established in 1912, issued these coins specifically to displace the Maria Theresa thalers, manillas, and cowrie shells still widely used across the region. The Board's mandate was explicitly extractive: coins were to be exchanged for sterling at a fixed rate, tying local commerce to London's financial infrastructure.
The copper-nickel alloy was chosen over bronze partly for durability in humid tropical conditions.