1/10 Penny - Edward VII Pattern

British West Africa's fractional coinage was designed from the outset for low-value transactions in markets where the existing currency — Spanish and American dollars, German marks, and a tangle of local commodity currencies — was wholly unsuitable for small change. The 1906 aluminium pattern was part of an exploratory phase before the West African Currency Board settled on its final specifications, testing whether aluminium could hold up under tropical conditions and heavy handling.

It could not. Aluminium proved too soft and too easily counterfeited by local craftsmen, and the Board abandoned it before regular issue. Only a handful of these pattern pieces were struck.