International Currency Counterfeiting Schemes in Interwar West Africa

Abstract

Abstract During the interwar period, international counterfeiting schemes originating in West Africa presented a new threat to British colonial and national currencies. This new pattern of criminality relied upon international commercial relationships that were enabled by the colonial monetary system set up by the British in the early twentieth century. Through the analysis of three cases, this article argues that colonial authorities not only regarded the schemes as a risk to the currency system, but also sought to combat them because they presented a new challenge to British law enforcement in the colonies, set off disputes between national and imperial institutions in London, and required the British to collaborate with other nations to thwart. These schemes demonstrate that although colonial coins and banknotes—and definitions of legality and illegality in relation to them—supported imperial economic aims in West Africa, colonial currencies also enabled Africans to establish global connections that had the potential to undermine British colonial authority.