It was not until the early 1950s that great changes started taking effect in West Africa. Oil was discovered in Nigeria. In the Gold Coast (Ghana) the output of gold manganese and diamonds was increasing and in Sierra Leone large iron ore deposits were opened in addition to the rush for diamonds.

   The Currency Board was not immune to these rapid changes fulfilling the increased currency demand by issuing new notes

      TEN SHILLINGS 31st MARCH 1953 PICK 9               TWENTY SHILLINGS 31st MARCH 1953 PICK 10

    Forgeries were further reduced by adding a security thread, native scenes were introduced on the reverse of the notes and the five pound note was reintroduced after an absence of thirty years.

                                      REVERSE FIVE POUNDS PICK11B 1954 NATIVE SCENE

   The growing pressures for independence meant it was inevitable that the Currency Board would contract. Ghana which had become independent in 1957 entrusted the Bank of Ghana to issue notes in 1958. Nigeria followed soon after the Central Bank of Nigeria opened in July 1959. The currencies of Sierra Leone and Gambia took sometime to be issued. Sierra Leone adopted the Leone from the onset but Gambia (1965) and Nigeria and Ghana initially continued to use the pound**

**See related article  Pound Banknotes in post independence British Africa   CONTENTS