10 Pesewas

Ghana's 1967 coinage series — which included this piece — was introduced following the country's transition from the pound-based system to the cedi and pesewa, itself a consequence of the economic disruption following Kwame Nkrumah's overthrow by military coup in February 1966. The new currency was explicitly designed to sever symbolic ties with the Nkrumah era, whose own coinage had prominently featured his portrait.

The series ran through successive governments — military and civilian — without modification, a quiet sign of how little political capital anyone spent on small-denomination coinage during a decade of considerable instability.