In 1820, in response to a request from the British colony of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, the imperial government in London struck silver coins in the denominations of , , and dollars. The dollar unit in question was equivalent to the Spanish dollar and these fractional coins were known as 'Anchor Dollars' because of the anchor that appeared on them. More of these anchor dollars were struck in 1822 and not only for

but also for the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized 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, Grena ...

. In addition to this, a dollar anchor coin was struck for

. A year or two later, copper dollar fractions were struck for

, the

, and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

. The dollar was the currency of

until 1877. Initially, it was made up of

Spanish dollars 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 ...

, with paper money and new coins being issued in the 1820s (see

Anchor coinage The anchor coinage was a series of four denominations of silver coins issued for use in some British colonies in 1820 and 1822. The name comes from the crowned anchor that appears on the obverse of the coins. The denominations were sixteenth, eigh ...

). The dollar was initially pegged at a value of 2

Indian rupee The Indian rupee ( symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency in the republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 ''paise'' (singular: ''paisa''), though as of 2022, coins of denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use w ...

s, then at 4

shillings 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 or ...

sterling. In 1822, coins for 25 and 50 sous were issued due to the continued use of the

French colonial livre The livre was the currency of various French colonies until the early 19th century. It was subdivided into 20 sous, each of 12 deniers. It was mostly issued in paper money form and was generally linked to the French livre at the rate of colonia ...

. The dollar circulated alongside sterling and the Indian rupee. An unofficial exchange rate of 2 rupees to the dollar was used, although this overvalued the rupee for a time. In 1877, the

Mauritian rupee The Mauritian rupee (sign: Re (singular) and Rs (plural); ISO code: MUR; ) is the currency of Mauritius. One rupee is subdivided into 100 cents. Several other currencies are also called rupee. Coins In 1877, coins for 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cents w ...

was introduced. It replaced the dollar at a rate of 2 rupees = 1 dollar.

References

* Currencies of Africa Currencies of the British Empire Currencies of Mauritius Economy of Mauritius History of Mauritius Modern obsolete currencies 1877 disestablishments 19th-century economic history British Mauritius {{Money-unit-stub