1000 Pounds

The West African Currency Board served British West Africa — Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia — as a shared monetary authority from 1912 until each territory established its own central bank around independence. By 1954, that process was already underway; Ghana's independence came in 1957, and the WACB's days were numbered. A £1000 denomination at this late stage was never intended for retail commerce. Notes at this level moved between colonial treasuries and clearing banks, with individual pieces representing sums far exceeding annual wages for most of the population.

This example bears a specimen perforation, meaning it was punched through before distribution to authorized recipients — banks, finance ministries, currency boards — as a reference copy, legally valueless and impossible to pass. De La Rue's specimen perforations of this period are typically clean and precise, the cancellation method of choice over ink overprinting for high-denomination material.