1 Penny - George VI Copper Pattern

British West Africa's wartime coinage was normally struck in base metal alloys due to copper shortages, making a pure copper pattern from 1945 particularly anomalous. By that point, the standard circulating pennies for the region were being produced in tin or brass compositions as part of broader wartime material conservation across the British colonial minting program.

Patterns of this type were struck at the Royal Mint as compositional trials — not intended for circulation, produced in very small numbers for official evaluation and archival retention.