The Gambia issued its first independent coinage in 1971, four years after breaking from British colonial administration — a deliberate assertion of national identity for one of Africa's smallest and most geographically peculiar states, a narrow river corridor almost entirely surrounded by Senegal. The series was struck at the Royal Mint, a residual colonial arrangement that persisted well into the post-independence decades for many Anglophone African nations lacking domestic minting capacity.
The butut denominations were introduced alongside the dalasi as the country replaced the British West African pound system under the Gambian Dalasi Act of 1971.
The Gambia issued its first independent coinage in 1971, four years after breaking from British colonial administration — a deliberate assertion of national identity for one of Africa's smallest and most geographically peculiar states, a narrow river corridor almost entirely surrounded by Senegal. The series was struck at the Royal Mint, a residual colonial arrangement that persisted well into the post-independence decades for many Anglophone African nations lacking domestic minting capacity.
The butut denominations were introduced alongside the dalasi as the country replaced the British West African pound system under the Gambian Dalasi Act of 1971.