Shilling 1919, Coin from British West Africa - detailed information

The Shilling was a circulating denomination of the British West African Pound. As with its British counterpart, one shilling was equal to 12 pence, and 20 shillings made one pound.

In the 19th century, the (pre-decimal) pound sterling became the currency of the British West African territories and standard issue United Kingdom coinage circulated for a while. The West African territories in question were Nigeria, the Gold Coast (now Ghana), Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

In 1912, the authorities in London set up the West African Currency Board and issued a distinctive set of sterling coinage for use in British West Africa. The circumstance prompting this move was a tendency for existing UK coins used in the West African territories to leave the region and return to the UK, hence causing a local dearth of coinage. A unique British West African variety of the sterling coinage would not be accepted in the shops of Britain and so would remain in circulation locally.

Consequently, the British West African shilling coins were made very different from their Imperial counterparts. Apart from changing to base metals earlier than the Imperial coinage, two visible differences were the local reverse and the fact that the monarch's effigy on the obverse was crowned - to signify the status of the coinage as being colonial. The monarch's legend though was the same as on standard British coinage (in Latin).

The British West African pound was also adopted by Liberia between 1907 and 1943, and Togo and Cameroon after 1914 and 1916 respectively.

After decolonisation, the coins were demonetised by the various countries as they introduced their own independent currencies:
- Nigeria introduced the Nigerian Pound in 1958
- Ghana introduced in Ghanaian Pound in 1958
- British Cameroon adopted the CFA franc in 1961
- Sierra Leone introduced the Leone in 1964
- Gambia introduced the Gambian Pound in 1965

Thus, coins issued in 1919 were legal tender for up to 46 years depending on location - although in reality the population would have withdrawn them from circulation after the debasement of the coin type in 1920.