1 Pice    (Venduta per $2.0)

1888, Mombasa, British East Africa Company. Bronze Pice Coin. VF-

Mint Year: 1888 Reference: KM-1.5.  Denomination: Pice  Mint place: Calcutta (M) Condition: Lightly pitted by corrosion (environmental damage), minor greenish deposits (vendigris), otherwise VF! Material: Copper Diameter: 25mm Weight: 6.27gm

Obverse: Large market scales above persian "Adli" (just) inscription. Legend: IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA Co. / 1888   Reverse: Persian inscription "DYMM TUANKU ISMAIL NASIRUDDIN SHAH" above mint initial (M) of the Calcutta mint. English legend above, wreath below. Legend: MOMBASA 1306

The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was the administrator of British East Africa, which was the forerunner of the East Africa Protectorate, later Kenya.  The IBEAC was a commercial association founded to develop African trade  in the areas controlled by the British colonial power. Created after  the Berlin Treaty of 1885, it was led by William Mackinnon and built upon his company's trading activities in the region, with the encouragement of the British government. Mombasa and its harbour were central to its operations, with an administrative office about 80 km south in Shimoni. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888, and granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 6 September 1888. The IBEAC oversaw an area of approximately 246,800 mi² (639,209 km²)  situated along the eastern coast of Africa, its centre being at about 39° East longitude and 0° latitude, and from 1890 also administered Uganda. The administration of British East Africa was transferred to the Foreign Office on 1 July 1895, and in 1896 so was control of Uganda.

British East Africa was an area of East Africa controlled by Britain in the late 19th century, which became a protectorate covering roughly the area of present-day Kenya.  It grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s  and lasted until 1920, when it became the colony of Kenya.

European missionaries began settling in the area from Mombasa to Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the Sultan of Zanzibar. In 1886 the British government encouraged William Mackinnon,  who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company  traded extensively in East Africa, to establish British influence in  the region. He formed a British East Africa Association which led to  the Imperial British East Africa Company being chartered in 1888. It administered about 150 miles (240 km) of coastline stretching from the River Tana via Mombasa to German East Africa which were leased from the Sultan. The British "sphere of influence", agreed at the Berlin Conference of 1885, extended up the coast and inland across the future Kenya and after 1890 included Uganda as well.

However, the company began to fail, and on 1 July, 1895 the British government proclaimed a protectorate,  and in 1902 made the Uganda territory part of the protectorate also. In  1902, the East Africa Syndicate received a grant of 500 square miles  (1,300 km2) in order to promote white settlement in the Highlands. The capital was shifted from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1905 and on 23 July, 1920 the protectorate became the Kenya Colony.