Anyone know why these are "cents" on the one and "penny" on the other? Does just "East Africa" instead of "British East Africa" have something or other to do with that? These were both minted in the same year in Great Britain under the one-year reign of Edward VIII. Always been curious about that. Thanks.
East Africa must have been under the homeland pounds/shillings/pence system while West Africa had decimal currency, I guess. "Cent" is a decimal unit (1/100), obviously. But pennies at the time were not.
I always liked these types as some of the few obtainable coins of Edward VIII's short reign. Nice toning on that East Africa 10c, BTW.
If you look around the British empire, some places use the cents system and some use the pence system. Australia and New Zealand as well as Southern Rhodesia and South Africa use pence too. Cents are in Canada, Malaya Straits Settlements, Mauritius, British Honduras and more.
It is now, since the UK went to a decimal system in 1970, but before that, as @daveydempsey mentioned, they were on the old non-decimal Sterling standard of pounds, shillings, and pence. The predecimal penny was not 1/100 of a pound as the modern UK “penny” is today. The modern decimal British penny (1/100 of a pound) is essentially a cent now, though I expect the old “penny” name still hangs on, just as it always has here in the US, with our cents. @daveydempsey - do they even still make penny coins, outside of mint and proof sets and Maundy sets? I know the halfpenny is a thing of the past. I don’t recall seeing any pennies when I was in Essex in 2013.
Yes they still mint Pennies, I get many in change and from house clearances. I took £155 in small change to the bank the other day all from the last 3 clearances
