The West African Currency Board, established in 1912 to serve British colonies including Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, switched this denomination from silver to nickel brass beginning with the 1938 series — a pragmatic response to wartime metal priorities that would ultimately become permanent. The board never granted individual colonies independent monetary control; all currency decisions ran through London, a centralization that became a recurring grievance in the years leading to independence.
The West African Currency Board, established in 1912 to serve British colonies including Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, switched this denomination from silver to nickel brass beginning with the 1938 series — a pragmatic response to wartime metal priorities that would ultimately become permanent. The board never granted individual colonies independent monetary control; all currency decisions ran through London, a centralization that became a recurring grievance in the years leading to independence.