The Silver Dollars of Africa

PREFACE

THE MODERN numismatic history of Africa, unlike that of classical times, is readily outlined and relatively uncomplicated in that the currencies usually follow the patterns of the European or Near East nations dominating the region of issue.

In the 7th century the Arabs invaded and conquered Egypt; then rapidly spread across north Africa into Spain, supplanting Christianity by Mohammedanism. Immigration followed in the 8th thru the 10th centuries, and Arab blood was mixed with Egyptian, Berber, and other native stocks. The Turkish conquests in the 16th century set up regencies in Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli; Morocco remaining for the time independent. From about 1600 to 1825 these states under loose Turkish sovereignty were largely pirate strongholds.

About 1430 under Portuguese instigation, a series of explorations of the African coast began. The Cape was rounded in 1488. Other nations moved in as trade expanded. The following three centuries were a period of rivalry, particularly among Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French interests, with little penetration inland from the coast being made by any, and with frequent changes in the national control of the coastal areas. In the 1770's awakened interest and exploration began. The final explorations in central Africa in the 1850's and 1860's were followed by expanded commercial interests, and the eventual partitioning of Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The pattern of African nations can perhaps be divided into three groups: first, the Mohammedan states along the Mediterranean shores, at first independent or under Turkish sovereignty, gradually falling under European control, and now again emerging as independent; second, the English, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Belgian colonies lining the shores of the Atlantic and Indian oceans; and finally a small group of independent nations.