10 Bututs

The Gambia's first decimal coinage series, introduced in 1971, coincided with the country having been fully independent from Britain for only six years. The butut subdivisions replaced the old shilling-based system under a decimalization push common across newly independent African nations in the 1960s and early 70s. The Gambia's tiny economy — built almost entirely on groundnut exports — meant circulating coinage saw genuine daily use rather than the hoarding typical of wealthier neighbors.