A Twitter user @reetah_kay, who was among church workers who counted money in her church after the last service, expressed her shock upon seeing a Nigerian old £1 amongst the offerings given in the church.
Taking to Twitter to recount the experience, she wrote;
After sunday service,those counting d money did dere work and guess what they found? “Nigeria’s own One Pound” I mean “one pound” used btw d year 1907 and 1973…Now my question is,how did dis person manage to keep dis currency till date?
Long before the Naira was introduced on 1 January 1973, the Nigeria pound was the currency of Nigeria between 1907 and 1973.
Nigeria had used the British West African pound until 1958 after which it issued its own currency, the Nigerian Pound.
Coins were issued in 1959 in denominations of ½, 1, 3 and 6 pence, 1 and 2 shillings.
Same 1959, the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced notes in denominations of 5 and 10 shillings, 1 and 5 pounds. Three series of notes were issued, in 1958, 1967 and 1968.
The Nigerian pound (which was at parity with the British pound with easy convertibility) was replaced with the introduction of Naira at a rate of 1 pound = 2 naira in 1973.
In 1973, Nigeria adopted a truly national currency in decimal form instead of the pounds, to replace the imperial system which she inherited from the British colonial administration.
The pounds and shillings were changed to Naira (N) and kobo (k),and four denominations of notes were issued as follows: 50 kobo; N1; N5 and N10.
In response to rapid economic growth made possible by the oil boom, N20, and N50 note denominations were added in 1977 and 1991 respectively.
Considering cost effectiveness and expansion of economic activities, higher denomination notes were issued. These are 100 Naira(1999), 200 Naira note (2000).
500 Naira was released in April, 2001 while the 1000 Naira note was released in October 2005.
On February 28th 2007, as part of the economic reforms, N50, N20, N10 and N5 banknotes and N1 and 50K coins, were reissued in new designs. While a new denomination N2 coin was introduced.
