Coins were used for financial transactions for goods and services. As of today, coins are no more used as money in Nigeria. This may be the situation in other parts of the world.
The major disadvantage of coins is its bulkiness. Besides, they were designed for low valued goods, and the cost of minting coins is on the high side.
The Nigerian money is the Naira of which 100 kobo equal One Naira (N1). The coins in Nigeria, ranging from half kobo, 1 kobo, 5 kobo, 10 kobo, 25 kobo and 50 kobo are all out of use or, one can say they've gone into extinction. It's easy to agree that the disappearance of these coins is mostly due to the regime of skyrocketing inflation.
Presently, all the currencies in use are paper money, and the least is Fifty Naira (N50). Other denominations are N100, N200, N500 and N1,000.
The Nigerian government redesigned the N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations late last year. This in effect made their old notes to cease to be legal tender. But, this has caused serious upset, and agitations from different sections of the society because the new notes have not circulated well among the populace. The people are going through painful experience to get the new notes.
No one is sure where this is leading to because some State governors are kicking against this federal government's policy, saying their States will continue to use the old notes. They even took the matter to court.
These days, you go to the banks and won't be able to get your money. Some banks are closing their gates against their customers, and their ATMs are not dispensing cash. There's real problem!
Back to coins. Before the Naira and Kobo currency, Nigeria was using the British Pound, Shillings and Pence. The coins then were half penny, one penny, 3 pence, 6 pence, one and two shillings. (20 shillings equal One Pound).
Earlier on, before the use of coins, or bank notes, cowries, which replaced trade by barter, had been the means of exchange.
Though the coins are gone, their pictures still represent the value of money. It's curious that today's children have no physical contact with the coin money. They only talk of coins when they are making some monetary calculations in Arithmetics or Mathematics. From the look of things, coins are gone for good.