100 Shillings / 5 Pounds

The West African Currency Board was established in 1912 to manage a unified currency across British West Africa — Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia — replacing the chaotic mix of foreign coins and trade currencies that had frustrated commerce for decades. This 1919 note enters circulation almost immediately after the First World War, a period when WACB was still refining its supply logistics; notes printed in London had to survive long sea voyages before reaching branch offices in Lagos or Accra, and humidity damage on arrival was a genuine operational concern.

Waterlow & Sons had been printing currency for British colonial territories since the mid-nineteenth century. The dual denomination — 100 Shillings alongside 5 Pounds — reflects the board's deliberate bridging of local shilling-based trade with sterling-denominated accounting.