5 Pounds

Biafra's gold coinage of 1969 was struck during the final, desperate phase of the secession war against Nigeria — a conflict that had already killed millions, largely through the famine deliberately engineered by the federal blockade. The coins were produced in Britain, almost certainly by the Royal Mint's commercial arm, for a government that controlled an ever-shrinking pocket of territory in the southeast. They were never intended for circulation.

Biafra surrendered in January 1970. Most of these pieces exist as proof strikes sold to foreign collectors and sympathizers as hard-currency fundraising.