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1 Cent Sierra Leone Company
| Issuer | Sierra Leone Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791-1796 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1791-1830) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A finely engraved crouching lion occupies the central field, depicted in left profile with its forequarters lowered and hindquarters raised, resting on a rocky ground line rendered in naturalistic detail. The lion's mane is elaborately worked, and the tail curves upward prominently above the body. The peripheral legend reads SIERRA LEONE COMPANY arcing across the upper field, with AFRICA. inscribed along the lower exergue. The coin border is defined by a continuous beaded rim. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | 1791 - - 500,000 1791 - Proof - 400 1796 - - 50,000 |
| Additional information |
The Sierra Leone Company was a British abolitionist venture chartered in 1792 to administer the Province of Freedom settlement at Freetown, and these cents were struck specifically to provide a functioning currency for the colony's freed Black Loyalist settlers. The Company had commercial ambitions alongside its humanitarian ones — it held a trade monopoly and needed small change that local barter economies couldn't supply.
Minted by Boulton & Watt at the Soho Mint in Birmingham, among the most technically advanced striking facilities in the world at the time.