British West Africa 1920 shilling
This specimen was lot 71110 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Santa Ana, CA, October 2019), where it did not sell. The catalog description[1] noted, "BRITISH WEST AFRICA. Shilling, 1920. PCGS MS-63 Gold Shield. Offering mostly argent surfaces highlighted by a golden peripheral tone, this choice example is surpassed in the PCGS census by just one other specimen." British West Africa comprised Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (now Ghana) and Nigeria. The union broke up in the late fifties as the parts were granted independence. This type was struck at the Royal Mint (shown here) and the Heaton mint 1913-20. The alloy was changed to tin-brass in 1920. The last shilling is dated 1952. This date is scarce, outnumbered by a large issue from King's Norton in tin-brass.
Recorded mintage: 828,000.
Specification: 5.65 g, 0.925 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-12.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Richard Ponterio and Kyle Ponterio, The October 2019 Collector's Choice Sale: World and Ancient Coins, Santa Ana, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2019.
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