Trial pieces for British West Africa were produced at the King's Norton Mint in Birmingham, which held the contract for the region's coinage during this period. This reverse trial would have been struck to test die alignment, metal flow, and surface finish before committing to a full production run — standard pre-production procedure for a colonial issue where shipping replacement dies across continents was expensive and slow.
The 1920 series for British West Africa coincided with significant post-WWI metal allocation decisions that shifted several colonial coinages away from bronze toward copper-nickel.
Trial pieces for British West Africa were produced at the King's Norton Mint in Birmingham, which held the contract for the region's coinage during this period. This reverse trial would have been struck to test die alignment, metal flow, and surface finish before committing to a full production run — standard pre-production procedure for a colonial issue where shipping replacement dies across continents was expensive and slow.
The 1920 series for British West Africa coincided with significant post-WWI metal allocation decisions that shifted several colonial coinages away from bronze toward copper-nickel.