British West Africa

[Guest grcalvert]

There seem to be a lot of 1936/Edward VIII coins from British West Africa coming up on eBay in BUNC and in large numbers. Does anyone know if these are likely to be modern replicas/restrikes/fakes etc? Or has someone offloaded hundreds of the things? Sorry if someone has asked this before.

[Chris Perkins]

They made them in large numbers with Edward VIII on them before he abdicated. I haven't seen them on ebay but have seen other lots containing many BU examples of the west africa coins at real auction houses.

They are not rare, or anything special but I would imagine they are real coins from 1936.

Chris

www.predecimal.com

[Guest grcalvert]

Thanks Chris

I guess like many collectors, I get the jitters when there's a suggestion of fakery.

Hope things are going well with the Roman collection

Geoff Calvert

[Chris Perkins]

I know the feeling, I think as long as they are not Mainland British Edward VIII coins you're probably ok with regards to fakery!

Chris

[Guest Michael Z]

I know the feeling, I think as long as they are not Mainland British Edward VIII coins you're probably ok with regards to fakery!

Chris

I have one of these coins from British West Africa. I wonder if anyone knows the significance of the Star of David which appears on these coins. Although Israel was not founded until 1948, the Star of David has been a symbol of Judaism since the Middle ages, so I was surprised to see it on a coin of British West Africa.

Any information would be appreciated.

[scottishmoney]

I have one of these coins from British West Africa. I wonder if anyone knows the significance of the Star of David which appears on these coins. Although Israel was not founded until 1948, the Star of David has been a symbol of Judaism since the Middle ages, so I was surprised to see it on a coin of British West Africa.

Any information would be appreciated.

Actually the Star with six points, commonly known as the Star of David has also appeared on Islamic coins, the late 19th and early 20th century Moroccan coins have had it, it has also appeared on US Silver Dollars and has no significance other than is just a six pointed star. In fact until the WWII and the Holocaust and subsequent foundation of Israel in 1948, outside of Judaism not many people would have referred to it as a Star of David, because they would not have known that it had significance to that faith.

[mint_mark]

Hmmm, I was about to say that it's a five pointed star on Moroccan coins (and it often is), but then I found this link about the Seal of Solomon on Moroccan coins, which is quite interesting.