The West African Currency Board was dogged during the initial years of currency circulation in maintaining adequate supplies. Besides the regular fluctuations in agricultural crops cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil and palm kernels the 1914 world war abruptly affected commodity exports. In 1918 the board could not meet the demand for silver coin based on the rapid turn around in the economy after the first world war. The Bank of England authorized the printing of 21 million salmon one shilling replacement notes as an alternative.

                         BRITISH WEST AFRICAN ONE SHILLING PICK 1a DECEMBER 1918 

Before these supplies could reach Nigeria the Nigerian Authorities were forced to issue there own emergency currency in 1918

                     NIGERIA ONE SHILLING EMERGENCY ISSUE PICK 1 DECEMBER 1918

Three values were produced 1/-,10/- and 20/-. As soon as the salmon notes shown above arrived the Nigerian notes were withdrawn hence they are extremely scarce. As early as 1919 it was realized that at the present stage of development West Africa was not ready for paper currency. Although the one pound note was popular with Europeans and in the larger towns, the 1/- and 2/- designed for wider use met with dislike from the general public for which they were intended. In addition the 5 pound note with the date 1st March 1919 was issued for use by banks and wealthy people, again lack of use resulted in withdrawal in 1923

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