Biafran pound
Biafran pound: a historical unit of account.
- Dates in use
- Introduction uncertain; ended 1970–1972
- Ancestry branch
- Sterling
Its place in the family
All ancestors and descendants ↗Parents 1
Biafran pound
This currencyChildren 0
No successor is established here.
Trace its ancestry backward
Biafran pound
Nigerian pound
West African Currency Board pound
Pound sterling
1 later contribution joined this currency. See those connections →
Frankish denier–livre
Roman solidus–nomisma
Roman as–denarius accounting
Earlier ancestry is not established here.
1 later contribution joined this currency. See those connections →
The story
A February 1969 sale of 110 tins of palm oil created a 1, 650-Biafran-pound payment obligation expressly distinguished from Nigerian pounds. [1]
By the suit's filing on 17 February 1972, Biafran currency was no longer in legal use. The Supreme Court rejected replacement consideration in Nigerian pounds or naira and stated there was no official conversion rate. [2]
Extinct without proportional redemption; no Biafran-pound-to-naira conversion edge. [3]
Turning points
Account-unit observation
Symes reproduces provisions retaining Nigerian money in 1967 and a January 1968 announcement replacing it with Biafran currency. His postwar recall account says no proportional conversion occurred; a flat payment was used instead. [4]
Sources and evidence
- Supreme Court of Nigeria · Chief A.N. Onyiuke III v. G.E. Okeke, SC.430/1974, Supreme Court of Nigeria, 5 March 1976 C1410 ↗
- Supreme Court of Nigeria · Chief A.N. Onyiuke III v. G.E. Okeke, SC.430/1974, Supreme Court of Nigeria, 5 March 1976 C1411 ↗
- Supreme Court of Nigeria · Chief A.N. Onyiuke III v. G.E. Okeke, SC.430/1974, Supreme Court of Nigeria, 5 March 1976; Peter Symes · Peter Symes, The Bank Notes of Biafra, IBNS Journal 36(4), 1997, updated edition reproduced on Biafran.org C1437 ↗
- Peter Symes · Peter Symes, The Bank Notes of Biafra, IBNS Journal 36(4), 1997, updated edition reproduced on Biafran.org C1412 ↗
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Cite this page
“Biafran pound.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Reader edition 2026-10-13; research dataset v44. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/CUR-V26-BIAFRAN-POUND.html