1 Unit

French West Africa had no unified coinage infrastructure in 1883 — the federation itself wouldn't formally exist until 1895. This brass piece was issued as a trade token by a private commercial firm operating in the Senegambian region, filling a vacuum left by the chronic shortage of small-denomination specie reaching the interior. The issuing merchants needed fractional currency that colonial authorities couldn't or wouldn't provide.

The Lecambré reference places it firmly in the private token series catalogued by French colonial numismatists rather than official government issue.