The region known as the British West Indies included British Guiana on the South American mainland, British Honduras in Central America, Bermuda, The Bahamas, and Jamaica, along with its former dependencies of the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It also included the Eastern Caribbean territories of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands.
From the early 19th century to the later 20th century, the region generally used sterling coinage, although there was quite widespread usage of mixed sterling and dollar accounts. In the later 20th century there was a move towards dollar accounts in all the territories, in conjunction with the introduction of decimal fractional coinage.
Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 the first attempt to introduce the pound sterling currency system to the British West Indies; however it failed to displace the existing Spanish dollar currency system right up until the great silver devaluation of 1873. In addition to the Spanish dollars and gold doubloons, the British government coined 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 fractional "Anchor dollars" in 1822, for use in Mauritius and the British West Indies, but not including Jamaica.
The next move to introduce British sterling silver coinage to the colonies came with an imperial order in council dated 1825. This move was inspired by a number of factors. By that time, the United Kingdom was operating a very successful gold standard in relation to the gold sovereign that had been introduced in 1816, and there was a desire to extend this system to the colonies. In addition to this, there was the fact that the supply of Spanish dollars ("pieces of eight") had been cut off as a result of the revolutions in Latin America, where most of the Spanish dollars were minted. The last Spanish Dollar was in fact minted at Potosi, Jamaica in 1825. There was also a growing desire to have a stable and steady supply of British shillings throughout the British Empire.
The 1825 order-in-council was largely a failure because it made sterling silver coinage legal tender at the unrealistic rate in relation to the Spanish dollar of $1 = 4 shillings and 4 pence. In 1838, remedial legislation was introduced for the British West Indies, with a new and more realistic rate of $1 = 4s 2d. As a result, most of the British West Indies used sterling coinage from around 1840 until 1955. On the outbreak of the Second World War, the sterling area was created as a wartime emergency measure in order to protect the external value of sterling. All of the British West Indies territories joined the sterling area in 1939, even including British Honduras, which might conceivably have followed the path of Canada and Newfoundland and remained outside the arrangement.
Despite the use of sterling coinage throughout the British West Indies during this period, there was also a mixed usage of sterling accounts and dollar accounts, and there was an eventual move towards dollar accounts in all the territories in conjunction with decimal fractional coinage. This article will chart the circumstances and changes in the individual territories.
British Honduras, renamed Belize in 1973, was the first British colony in the Caribbean area to replace sterling currency with a US dollar-based currency. That occurred in 1885 as a result of the fact that the dollar of neighbouring Guatemala had driven the sterling coinage out of circulation. The authorities wanted to return to the gold standard, and the choice of the US dollar was influenced by growing trade links with New Orleans in the USA. (See the main article entitled the Belize dollar.)
British Guiana, renamed Guyana on independence in 1966, was the only one of the territories in the British West Indies to use dollar accounts in both the public and private sectors throughout the period 1839 to 1950. Although sterling coinage circulated during this period, it did so in conjunction with the Spanish dollar unit of account at the fixed rate of $1 = 4s 2d. Another feature of interest that was exclusive to British Guiana was the special issue four pence (4d) coin known as the groat. (See the main article at Guyanese dollar.)
From 1842 until 1970, Bermuda used the sterling currency as the official currency in both specie coinage and also as the unit of account. (See the main article at Bermudian pound.)
Unlike Bermuda, the Bahamas, although using the sterling system, both in coinage and as a unit of account, also allowed the US dollar to unofficially circulate alongside the Pound sterling. (See the main article at Bahamian pound.)
Jamaica used both sterling coinage and sterling units of account from 1840 until 1969. But unlike the rest of the British West Indies, Jamaica had its own special varieties of the sterling copper coinage. Apart from a Bahamas penny of 1806, and the four pence (4d) groat coins that were specially minted for the British West Indies, and later for British Guiana only, the rest of the British West Indies just used exactly the same coinage that was circulating in the United Kingdom. [1] [2] When Jamaica went decimal in 1969, the new Jamaican dollar was in effect a half-pound. Jamaica and the Cayman Islands were therefore the only territories in the British West Indies to continue with a descendent unit of the pound sterling. (See the main article at Jamaican pound.)
Accompong (from the Akan name Acheampong ) is a historical Maroon village located in the hills of St. Elizabeth Parish on the island of Jamaica. It is located in Cockpit Country, where Jamaican Maroons and indigenous Taíno established a fortified stronghold in the hilly terrain in the 17th century. They defended it and maintained independence from the Spanish and then later against British forces, after the colony changed hands.
The people named their community Accompong after an early African Maroon leader. After years of raiding and warfare, they established their autonomy with certain rights for limited self-government by a peace treaty with the British in 1739. [3] Since independence in 1962, the government of Jamaica has continued to recognize the indigenous rights of the Jamaican Maroons in this area.
In 2018, the Accompong Ministry of Finance began issuing its own community currency, the LUMI, [4] although the Jamaican Dollar is still widely used.
The Cayman Islands, being a dependency of Jamaica, followed a course similar to that of Jamaica. (See the main article at Jamaican pound.)
The Turks and Caicos Islands, being a dependency of Jamaica, followed a course similar to that of Jamaica. However, when Jamaica went unto the decimal system in 1969, the Turks and Caicos Islands took the opportunity of changing over to the US dollar.
The Eastern Caribbean group comprised Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Windward Islands, and the Leeward Islands. These territories all used sterling coinage in conjunction with a mixture of sterling accounts and Spanish dollar accounts. The private banking sector tended to use Spanish dollar accounts at the fixed exchange rate of $1 = 4s 2d. The Eastern Caribbean group formed a monetary union with British Guiana in 1949 and the currency was known as the British West Indies dollar. Trinidad and Tobago left the arrangement in 1964. A new arrangement came about the following year and the currency was renamed the Eastern Caribbean dollar. British Guiana withdrew from this monetary union in 1966 and Barbados withdrew in 1972. (See the main articles at British West Indies dollar, Eastern Caribbean dollar, Trinidad and Tobago dollar, Guyanese dollar, and Barbados dollar.)
Although part of the Leeward Islands group in the Eastern Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands were somewhat problematic as regards currency, due to the close proximity to the Danish West Indies that were bought by the US in 1917 and became the US Virgin Islands. Sterling was the official currency but there was always a large circulation of Danish krone and later US dollars. When the British West Indies dollar was introduced to the British Virgin Islands in 1951 there were protests, and in 1961 the British Virgin Islands formally adopted the US dollar as its official currency. (See Eastern Caribbean dollar.)
The Eastern Caribbean dollar is the currency of all seven full members and one associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The successor to the British West Indies dollar, it has existed since 1965, and it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $ or, alternatively, EC$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The EC$ is subdivided into 100 cents. It has been pegged to the United States dollar since 7 July 1976, at the exchange rate of US$1 = EC$2.70.
The West Indies Federation, also known as the West Indies, the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and those on the Leeward and Windward Islands, came together to form the Federation, with its capital in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state — possibly similar to Canada, the Federation of Australia, or the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Before that could happen, the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts over how it would be governed or function viably. The formation of a West Indian Federation was encouraged by the United Kingdom, but also requested by West Indian nationalists.
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonised British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, British Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago. Other territories included Bermuda, and the former British Honduras.
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is a supranational central bank that serves Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, all members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that use the ECCB-issued Eastern Caribbean Dollar as their currency. The ECCB was established in 1983, succeeding the British Caribbean Currency Board (1950–1965) and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority (1965–1983). It is also in charge of bank supervision within its geographical remit.
The British West Indies dollar (BWI$) was the currency of British Guiana and the Eastern Caribbean territories of the British West Indies from 1949 to 1965, when it was largely replaced by the East Caribbean dollar, and was one of the currencies used in Jamaica from 1954 to 1964. The monetary policy of the currency was overseen by the British Caribbean Currency Board (BCCB). It was the official currency used by the West Indies Federation The British West Indies dollar was never used in British Honduras, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, or Bermuda.
A currency union is an intergovernmental agreement that involves two or more states sharing the same currency. These states may not necessarily have any further integration.
The Jamaican dollar has been the currency of Jamaica since 1969. It is often abbreviated to J$, the J serving to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents, although cent denominations are no longer in use as of 2018. Goods and services may still be priced in cents, but cash transactions are now rounded to the nearest dollar.
The Trinidad and Tobago dollar is the currency of Trinidad and Tobago. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively TT$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is subdivided into 100 cents. Cents are abbreviated with the cent sign ¢, or TT¢ to distinguish from other currencies that use cents. Its predecessor currencies are the Trinidadian dollar and the Tobagonian dollar.
The Guyanese dollar has been the unit of account in Guyana since 29 January 1839. Originally it was intended as a transitional unit to facilitate the changeover from the Dutch guilder system of currency to the British pound sterling system. The Spanish dollar was already prevalent throughout the West Indies in general, and from 1839, the Spanish dollar unit operated in British Guiana in conjunction with British sterling coins at a standard conversion rate of one dollar for every four shillings and twopence. In 1951 the British sterling coinage was replaced with a new decimal coinage which was simultaneously introduced through all the British territories in the Eastern Caribbean. When sterling began to depreciate in the early 1970s, a switch to a US dollar peg became increasingly attractive as an anti-inflationary measure and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Authority made the switch in October 1975. The Guyanese dollar is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively G$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies.
The dollar has been the currency of Barbados since 1935. Globally its currency has the ISO 4217 code BBD, however, unofficially in Barbados the International vehicle registration code BDS is also commonly used, a currency code that is otherwise reserved for Bangladesh outside Barbados. As such the present Barbados dollar has the official ISO 4217 code of BB which matches the [dot] .bb Cc-TLD domain names classification for Barbados under ISO 3166, plus D for dollar in the foreign exchange market. The Barbadian dollar is considered as a currency which can be divided into 100 cents, though the 1 cent coin is in the process of being phased out. In terms of population, Barbados is the third smallest country in the world after Tonga and the Seychelles to have an independent currency and monetary policy.
The pound was the official currency of Jamaica between 1840 and 1969. It circulated as a mixture of sterling coinage and locally issued coins and banknotes and was always equal to the pound sterling. The Jamaican pound was also used in the Cayman and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The pound was the currency of the Bahamas until 1966. It was equivalent to the pound sterling and was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Standard sterling coinage circulated. Apart from a Bahamas penny coin struck in 1806, there were no special coin issues such as were found in Jamaica.
The term British West Indies refers to the former English and British colonies and the present-day overseas territories of the United Kingdom in the Caribbean.
This article describes the history of West Indies cricket to 1918.
The history of currency in the British colony of Grenada closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The history of currency in the British colony of St. Kitts closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The history of currency in the British colony of Saint Vincent closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. As such, it should not be considered in isolation. In order to get a broad overview of currency in the region, see the article British West Indies dollar.
Antigua and Barbuda are two separate islands which operate as one country. Along with many other countries of the Caribbean, they use the East Caribbean dollar as their official currency, which was first brought into circulation in 1965 to replace the British West Indies dollar.
The history of currency in the British colony of Saint Lucia closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Sterling was the currency of many, but not all parts of the British Empire. This article looks at the history of sterling in the Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific region.
