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Welcome to the web site dedicated to Colonial African numismatics. You will find on this website information on the monetary system of European African overseas territories. The different coins issued by government or by official authorities for a colonial or mandated territory, circulating and/or specially emitted for their African overseas possessions are shown.

Only coins with a direct link with a European colonist country are shown here. For northern Africa, where the European influence is more obvious, only the coins during the official European presence are considered. In the case of the independent or never colonized countries, such as Ethiopia, Liberia, the Boer States, and Morocco and Egypt for some periods, an exception is made for the coins with a direct link with colonial/European currency. Moreover, attention has been paid on trade coinage, especially the Austrian thaler and its countermarks, since it is a European denomination. As primitive money had an important impact on the introduction of metal currency, a very brief introduction is given, including the quasi omni present kauri shell.

Every colonizing country since 1415 has a section, even countries which were not present anymore at the great ‘scramble’ in Berlin (1885) and later. In that optic, the Dutch factories of the Gold and Slave Coast as well as the factories founded by the Scandinavian countries and German States are considered. The colonizing countries are discussed in separate chapters in chronological order of presence on the African continent.

The aim of this web site is to provide an overall presentation of Colonial Africa on the general  numismatic point of view, from the fall of Ceuta in 1415 to the de-colonization wave initiated after the Second World War. This work should be a useful tool for the history ‘aficionado’ as for the numismatist/coin collector.