This East African 5 cents of 1942 was struck at the height of the Second World War, and the war left its mark on the type itself: 1942 is the year the coin was made thinner and lighter than before.

There is no portrait of George VI. On the obverse the central hole separates a crown from the denomination «FIVE CENTS», ringed by the royal title «GEORGIVS VI REX ET IND:IMP:» — «George VI, King and Emperor of India». On the reverse two curved elephant tusks frame the hole, with «EAST AFRICA» above and the numeral 5 and the date below.

Type KM# 25 was issued from 1937 to 1943. Before the war it came from the Birmingham mints of Heaton and Kings Norton; in the war years Bombay and Pretoria joined in. The 1942 date exists in two versions: without a mint mark, 16,000,000 coins, and with the «SA» mark of Pretoria, 4,120,000.

Grade F-VF: the coin saw long use and the relief is noticeably smoothed, yet the crown, tusks and legends remain legible. For an East Africa collection it represents the reign of George VI and the wartime turning point in the history of the five-cent piece.

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