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1 Shilling
| Issuer | West African Currency Board |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Currency | Pound (1907-1968) |
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| Obverse description | Printed on orange-salmon paper in dark brown letterpress ink, the obverse is dominated by a large curved banner carrying the issuer's name at centre, above a legal tender declaration in script lettering. To the lower left, a guilloche-framed numeral '1' vignette serves as the denomination indicator, while at centre a circular seal encloses a palm tree motif encircled by the legend 'BRITISH WEST AFRICA / ONE SHILLING'. Serial numbers appear at upper left and upper right, with the date 'Lagos, 30th November, 1918' at lower centre and three manuscript signatures of the Members of the West African Currency Board at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ONE SHILLING Issued by the WEST AFRICAN CURRENCY BOARD These notes are legal tender for the payment of any amount. BRITISH WEST AFRICA ONE SHILLING LAGOS, 30th November, 1918 MEMBERS OF THE WEST AFRICAN CURRENCY BOARD. |
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| Comments |
The West African Currency Board was established in 1912 to provide a unified currency across British West Africa — Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia — replacing the chaotic mix of local coins and foreign trade currencies that had accumulated over decades of commerce. This 1 Shilling note was part of the Board's very first paper issue, prompted by the wartime coin shortages that had made small-denomination coinage across British territories genuinely difficult to obtain and circulate.
De La Rue's involvement was essentially a foregone conclusion given their near-monopoly on British colonial currency printing at the time. Pick 1 is the rarest of the inaugural series; the 1918 notes had a short active life before coin supplies normalized postwar.