1 Shilling - George VI

The West African Currency Board, established by British colonial authorities in 1912, operated on a strict currency board arrangement — every note and coin in circulation had to be backed one-for-one by sterling reserves held in London. This meant that monetary expansion in British West Africa was entirely contingent on export earnings flowing back through London, a structural constraint that drained liquidity from the colonial economy and became a central grievance in early independence movements across Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Gambia.

The nickel brass alloy adopted for this series replaced the earlier cupro-nickel composition as a wartime and postwar materials compromise. The Currency Board itself was wound up in 1964 as successor central banks took over issuance.