2 Shillings - George V

British West Africa had no unified currency before 1907 — each territory operated under a patchwork of local trade currencies, including the notorious manilla, an iron or copper bracelet used across the Niger Delta that the colonial administration spent decades trying to suppress. The West African Currency Board, established that year, issued these coins to replace exactly that kind of commodity money across Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia simultaneously.

The 1913–1920 window spans the entirety of World War I, during which silver supply and shipping disruptions created genuine gaps in colonial currency availability.