1/2 Ackey - George III

The Company of Merchants Trading to Africa issued these pieces specifically for use along the Gold Coast, where British trade currency had to compete with and conform to local weight standards accepted by Fante and Asante traders. The "ackey" unit derived from the indigenous gold-weight system, giving this coinage an unusual dual legitimacy — acceptable to both the Company's factors and the African merchants they dealt with.

The Company was not a Crown institution but a regulated association of British traders, chartered in 1750 to replace the defunct Royal African Company. Its right to issue coinage was correspondingly irregular, making these pieces trade tokens in the strictest legal sense.