SENTI: COIN OF TANZANIA
10 senti, 1981: United Republic of Tanzania
10 - SENTI KUMI: from Swahili — "10 - ten senti" (or cents).
Plains zebra gallops.
TANZANIA - 1981.
RAIS WA KWANZA: from Swahili — "The First President".
Portrait of Julius Kambarage Nyerere — the first president of Tanzania (1964-1985), Tanzanian anti-colonial activist.
Coin design: Christopher Ironside (English painter and coin designer, particularly known for the reverse sides of the new British coins issued on decimalisation in 1971).
Royal Mint (United Kingdom).
Mintage: 10.000.000.
Shape of the coin — scalloped with 10 notches.
- Nickel brass: 25 mm - 5.06 g
- Reference price: 0.5$
COIN SENTI — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA (1966-...): senti = 1/100 shilingi
- SOMALI DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (1976-1984): senti = 1/100 shilin
SENTI as coin name. Tanzania as an independent state appeared on the world political map in 1964 after the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Two years later, the national currency, the Tanzanian shilling (shilingi), was introduced. This currency, like its colonial predecessor, the East African shilling, consisted of 100 cents.
However, on the coins of the newly formed independent state (unlike the shilling of British East Africa), the denomination is indicated in the local national language — Swahili. Therefore, the cent of modern Tanzania was transformed into senti (spelling "cent" in Swahili).
It is interesting that a coin with a denomination in the senti format can be found not only in modern African numismatics, but also among European coins, namely, Estonian coins. However, it is worth remembering that in this case we are dealing with the plural form of a completely different denomination of coins — sent (plural: senti).
