1/2 Crown

Malawi's 1964 coinage was issued the same year the country achieved independence from British colonial rule — July 6th, with Hastings Banda becoming the first Prime Minister. The half crown denomination itself was borrowed directly from the outgoing British Rhodesia and Nyasaland coinage structure, a transitional choice that kept familiar units in circulation while the new nation established its monetary footing. Malawi abandoned the pound system entirely just two years later when the kwacha was introduced in 1971, making this entire 1964 series short-lived by design.