Catalog
6 Pence - George V
| Issuer | British West Africa |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1936 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Tin brass (79% Copper, 20% Zinc, 1% Tin) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | BRITISH WEST AFRICA 6 PENCE KN 1920 |
| Edge | Reeded |
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| Additional information |
British West Africa's coinage was administered not by the Crown directly but by the West African Currency Board, established in 1912 to replace the chaotic mix of foreign coins, trade currencies, and manilla copper rings then circulating across Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Gambia. The Board's mandate was integration, and these small-denomination pieces were central to it.
The shift to tin brass — rather than the cupronickel used elsewhere in British colonial issues — was a deliberate cost decision tied to interwar metal economics and the relatively low purchasing power these coins needed to represent.