Abstract: Drawing on a large collection of official statistics and case studies across colonial boundaries, this paper analyzes the context and incidence of currency counterfeiting in inter-war British West Africa. It examines the phenomenon in the interlocking contexts of the inter-war economic depression, colonial monetary policy, imperial-colonial relations, transnational criminality, international policing and justice systems, the travails of indigenous entrepreneurship, and the driving forces of social prestige and agency. A key feature was the widespread involvement of African merchants who had fallen on hard times occasioned by the Great Depression. The loss of social status in the face of business bankruptcy underlay recourse to currency counterfeiting as an exit strategy. In spite of the limited success of counterfeiting schemes and the small amount of counterfeits in circulation, the coordinated countermeasures of colonial and imperial governments reveal the extent to which counterfeiting was considered a menace to West African currency and economic systems.