The Three Half-penny Bit.

Manawatu Herald, 4 July 1893, Page 2

The Three Half-penny Bit.

Our paragraph about the silver penny-half penny coin in the possession of Constable Gillespie has brought to light another similar coin the property of Mr Ennis. On further research we find this money is in constant use on the West Coast of Africa, but it is English money, minted in London and sent to Africa to teach the inhabitants habits of frugality, and that they may not be puffed up with too much conceit. In despite of all this care we have found as we have just stated, a resident in the colony who swaggers with it on his watch-chain. One of the spots

where this coin is in circulation is Sierra Leone, the capital of which is Freetown. This colony was founded in 1786 by a shipment of 400 free negroes who were then living in London in idleness and want and as a suitable (?) admixture sixty whites, mostly women of a bad character < and in ill-health were sent with them. \1 It was, though, presumably, that as the colony was not up to the mark the coinage might also be a little out of the ordinary, and thus silver three half-pence would just about suit.