The ackey was a currency issued for the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
by the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
between 1796 and 1818. It was subdivided into 8 ''takoe'' and was equal to the
British halfcrown, i.e., 1 takoe = 3
pence
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
and 1
pound = 8 ackey.
The currency consisted of silver coins in denominations of 1 takoe, , and 1 ackey. All coins bar the takoe carried the inscription "Free Trade to Africa by Act of Parliament 1750", commemorating the
African Company Act 1750 which dissolved the
Royal African Company
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...
and created the
African Company of Merchants
The African Company of Merchants or Company of Merchants Trading to Africa was a British chartered company operating from 1752 to 1821 in the Gold Coast area of modern Ghana, engaged in the Atlantic slave trade.
Background
The company was establ ...
, which remained in existence while the ackey was in circulation.
The name derived from the use of
ackee
The ackee, also known as ankye, achee, akee, ackee apple or ayee (''Blighia sapida'') is a fruit of the Sapindaceae (soapberry) family, as are the lychee and the longan. It is native to tropical West Africa. The scientific name honours Captain W ...
(''Blighia sapida'') seeds for weighing
gold dust; one ackee seed weighed about 20
troy grain
A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and in the troy weight, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems, equal to exactly milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a single ideal seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissan ...
s (1.3 grams).
Currencies of the British Empire
Currencies of Ghana
Modern obsolete currencies
1796 establishments in the British Empire
1818 disestablishments in the British Empire
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