Africa
Great image of the King of Beasts roaming the plains below Mt Kilimanjaro in this 1922 East Africa half shilling. This is the place where all of mankind originated from and one U.S. President is even rumored to have been born there. The coin was produced at the Royal Mint, London a couple years after this present day Kenya had gained independence from it's status as a British Protectorate from 1895-1920. The lion has been revered for thousands of years and widely represented on coins as a symbol of ultimate strength, bravery, and even royalty from England through Europe and beyond.
We are also all negroes and this is our homeland. We have evolved from this man on my 1981 Tanzania ten kumi (formerly UK). Some individuals are thought to have evolved from the likeness on the reverse side. According to the single origin conspiracy theorists, like various religious texts, mankind multiplied from a single pair of mates. Cornell professor Spencer Wells book and documentary, the Journey of Man , agrees with this theory. He conducted worldwide DNA studies studies which indicate that mankind originated from the bushmen of Africa and proceeded to evolve and migrate throughout the world in the pattern below.
In this unusual map layout, Africa is at the top. Mankind migrated down through Asia to Australia on the left and to the right through Asia to Europe as well as other routes through Alaska, North, Central and South America. This migration of modern hominids took place during a period of the last 60,000 to 100,000 years. This is a little different from earlier theories of the evolution of man that believed mankind left Africa 2 million years ago. You could say my "Journey in Retirement" is but one small step for this African American man, part of one giant leap for mankind's journey from Africa.
Africa had always been subject extensive colonization by Europe and in East Africa during the 30's the whites had evicted the African tenant farmers. The reverse of my 1933 East Africa 10 cent piece illustrates the ivory trade that used to be an important part of African commerce. It's getting harder to find good elephant tusks nowadays so most modern coin images have changed.
My1981 Botswana 2 thebe coin does still pay homage to the important elephant tusk ivory trade along with symbols for the warrior shield and the historical importance of cattle industry prior to independence from the UK.
This 1935 Southern Rhodesia 3 pence shows probably the most important personal weapon our ancestors used. At that time as a British colony, spears were probably more prevalent than today, but they are still used throughout Africa.
Other interesting animal representations in my collection include this Gazelle and the fish from the 1975 French West Africa 10 francs coin. Disney's African Cats movie has a nice clip of the Lion eating one of his favorite meals, the Gazelle. The West African states are now individual countries after gaining their independence from France. The Central Banc headquarters is in Dakar, Senegal which wouldn't mean much to me except that Dad spent his first night on African soil there. WikiLeaks spilled the beans on members of the banc who stole millions of dollars funneling it into French political parties.
The fish image is apparently a fish styled gold weight used to measure gold by the Ashanti people . very historical
Picked up this bronze 1946 Morocco 5 franc coin at last months coin show from a WW2 guy selling off. Imagine it's journey. (Dad's second African stopover.) Picked up this silver 1882 (1299) dirham as an "unknown" at the coin show. Turns out to be the first year of Morocco's modern coinage.