The Curious Tale of Zanzibar's Omani Copper Coins

In 1881, Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar introduced a copper coinage that would baffle historians and numismatists for over a century. This episode digs into the strange story of the 'Zanzibari paisa' — coins struck in Britain, shipped to the island, and then mysteriously hoarded and melted down, only to reappear in the 20th century as a collector's curiosity. We trace the economic pressures behind the minting, the clash between Indian rupee and Maria Theresa thaler, and the role of the British consul John Kirk in convincing Barghash to adopt a modern currency. But why did the coins fail so spectacularly? We explore the local resistance to a token currency, the legacy of the 1873 slave trade treaty, and how a numismatic footnote reveals the broader tensions of Zanzibar's place in the Indian Ocean world. #Zanzibar #BarghashBinSaid #Coins #Numismatics #IndianOceanTrade #MariaTheresaThaler #BritishEmpire #JohnKirk #19thCentury #EconomicHistory #SultanateOfZanzibar #SwahiliCoast #CloveTrade #SlaveTrade #Unguja #Pemba #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo