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10 Cents Sierra Leone Company
| Issuer | Sierra Leone Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791-1805 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Two clasped hands, one European and one African, are depicted at center in fine relief, symbolizing the trading partnership between the Sierra Leone Company and the local population. The numeral 10 appears above the handshake motif and again below it, flanking the central device vertically. The legend TEN CENT PIECE runs around the periphery in large, widely spaced letters. The date 1791 is inscribed in the lower field beneath the second numeral 10. A beaded rim borders the entire design. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Sierra Leone Company was a British abolitionist venture chartered in 1792 to administer the Province of Freedom settlement at Freetown, and its coinage was struck specifically to give the freed Black Loyalist and Nova Scotian settler population a functioning monetary system independent of barter. The company's coins are among the very few issues produced by a private humanitarian enterprise rather than a crown, colonial government, or trading monopoly.
Production was contracted to Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint in Birmingham — the same facility then revolutionizing British copper coinage with steam-powered presses.