BRITISH WEST AFRICAN CURRENCY BOARDS INTRODUCTION OF PAPER MONEY The British West African Currency Board was constituted in 1912 to control the supply of currency to the British West African Colonies; these now constitute Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Gambia. Whereas various silver and other metal coins had been in use in West Africa since the late eighteenth century; the coastline was unusual in the array of traditional forms of currency being used. These included cowrie shells, manillas, gold dust, bars(iron) and cases of gin ! The criteria for an ideal currency is that it is hardy, long lasting, easy to count, difficult to counterfeit, it is portable, durable and easy to recognize. Consequently there were few rivals to precious metals except cowrie shells! They represented the shillings and pence of the West African culture, the pounds being represented by higher value merchandise such as gold. By the nineteen twenties cowries had virtually disappeared from main trade, the British silver coin was accepted together with 1/10 penny and penny. Manillas which are pieces of copper in horseshoe shaped form were probably introduced to West Africa by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century; they came to trade goods in exchange for slaves and ivory and found their bracelets or manillas well accepted. At that time 12-15 brass manillas purchased one slave. Gin might appear unusual as a currency but cases of gin were well accepted in East And Central Nigeria being a good investment since the government continued to increase excise taxes and thus the price of gin went up. Based on the fact that by 1910 the amount of silver coinage in circulation in the West African Colonies Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone and Gambia was almost equivalent to that in circulation in the United Kingdom and given the fact that cash transactions had practically replaced barter the British Government requested a committee to look into the best currency policy for the West African Colonies. The Board recommended issuing paper money determined that the first paper issues bearing the name of the Currency Board would be a 2/- ,10/- and 20 shillings. One centre Lagos would initially be used for circulation. BRITISH WEST AFRICA TWO SHILLINGS PICK 2B 30th March 1918 The notes printed by Waterloo were first issued 11th July 1916 and two months later were also issued in Gold Coast (Ghana) and Sierra Leone. |
