Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two majo ...

are actually two separate islands which operate as one country. Along with many other countries of the Caribbean, they use the

East Caribbean dollar The Eastern Caribbean dollar ( symbol: EC$; code: XCD) 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 si ...

as their official currency, which was first brought into circulation in 1965 to replace the

British West Indies dollar 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 us ...

. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight ( Spanish dollars and later

Mexican dollar The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...

s) continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century. Britain adopted the gold standard in 1821 and an imperial order-in-council of 1838 resulted in Antigua formally adopting the sterling currency on 13 January 1847. However, despite the circulation of British silver coins in

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

, the silver pieces of eight continued to circulate alongside them, and the private sector continued to use dollar accounts for reckoning. The international

silver crisis of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the " ...

signalled the end of the silver dollar era in the West Indies and silver dollars were demonetized in

in the wake of this crisis for fear that a silver standard might return. Even though the British sterling coins were made of silver, they were fractional coins of the British gold sovereign and hence they maintained their gold value. This left a state of affairs, in which the British coinage circulated, being reckoned in dollar accounts at an automatic conversion rate of 1 dollar = 4

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

s 2 pence. From 1949, with the introduction of the

, the currency of

became officially tied up with that of the British

Eastern Caribbean The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS; French: ''Organisation des États de la Caraïbe orientale'', OECO) is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal ri ...

territories in general. The British sterling coinage was eventually replaced by a new decimal coinage in 1955, with the new cent being equal to one half of the old penny. The fixed exchange rate of = £1 sterling (equivalent to the old = 4s 2d) continued right up until 1976.

Banknotes

Three banks, the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000 ...

, the Colonial Bank and

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

, all issued 5 dollars notes. The Royal Bank of Canada issued notes between 1913 and 1938, whilst the Colonial Bank issued notes in 1926 and Barclays Bank (which took over the Colonial Bank) issued notes between 1937 and 1940.

References

External links

{{dollar Currencies of the Caribbean Economy of Antigua and Barbuda