10 'Pence' Griqua Town

The Griqua Town coinage is among the most unusual missionary-issue currency ever produced. The London Missionary Society authorized these pieces not as promotional tokens but as functional currency for the Griqua people of the Northern Cape, who had no reliable medium of exchange. The decision to add tin to the silver alloy was deliberate — a cost-reduction measure that distinguishes this series metallurgically from conventional colonial coinage of the period.

Struck in London and shipped to the mission station, the entire issue spanned only two years before the experiment was effectively abandoned. Surviving pieces are rare in any condition.