Description

British West Africa was the collective name for British colonies in West Africa during the colonial period, either in the general geographical sense or more specifically those comprised in a formal colonial administrative entity. The United Kingdom held varying parts of these territories or the whole throughout the 19th century. From west to east, the colonies became the independent countries of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria.

This coin was probably the first aluminium coin in the world to go into circulation. The British Mint commenced mintage of these coins in 1906, and in 1907 also produced aluminium one cent coins for British East Africa. The aluminium coins suffered from corrosion, and were soon replaced with copper-nickel coins of the same designs.

A Government official in 1912 stating that 'the ordinary native lives on 1 1/4 d. a day'. This is the reason for the production of such a low denomination coin as the tenth of a penny.

Obverse

An imperial crown above a central circular hole with a scroll ornament to right and left; below crown and around the hole, the denomination in English; around, outside the scroll ornaments, the legend; below the hole, the denomination in Arabic.

The Tudor Crown, also known as the King's Crown or Imperial Crown, is a widely used symbol in heraldry of the United Kingdom. While various crown symbols had been used for this purpose for many years previously, the specific Tudor Crown design was standardised at the request of Edward VII. It was never intended to represent any actual physical crown, although in shape it bears a close resemblance to the small diamond crown of Queen Victoria.

EDWARD VII KING & EMPEROR
ONE TENTH OF A PENNY
عُشِر الپَنّي

Reverse

Around circular central hole, Solomon's seal (six-pointed "Star of David"); around above country name; below, the star divides the date.

The Star of David (✡), known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram

A hexagram (Greek) or sexagram (Latin) is a six-pointed geometric star. Since there are no true regular continuous hexagrams, the term is instead used to refer to the compound figure of two equilateral triangles shown to the right.

NIGERIA BRITISH WEST AFRICA
· 19 07 ·

Edge
Characteristics
Material Aluminium
Weight 1 g
Diameter 20.3 mm
Thickness 1.72 mm
Shape round with a center hole
Alignment Medal
Mint
Royal Mint

Related coins

Cupronickel, 1.72 g, ⌀ 20.5 mm