2 Shillings - Elizabeth II 1st portrait

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland existed for only a decade — 1953 to 1963 — before African nationalist pressure and British political recalculation dissolved it. These early federation coins, struck at the Royal Mint in London and later at the Pretoria Mint, were among the first purpose-built issues for the new entity, replacing the Southern Rhodesian coinage that had circulated prior. The florin denomination carried over from that earlier series almost by inertia, a relic of pre-decimal British convention applied to a territory that would never see decimalization under federation governance.

The federation's dissolution came before the coinage could fully embed itself in daily commerce across all three territories.