A dog or a black dog was a coin in the

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Queen Anne of Great Britain Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * ...

, made of

pewter Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. In the past, it was an alloy of tin and lead, but most modern pewter, in order to prevent lead poi ...

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, typically worth 1½ pence or of a dollar. The name comes from the negative connotations of the word "dog," as they came from debased silver coins, and the dark color of those same debased coins. Black dogs were also at times called "stampes" or "stampees", as they were typically the coins of other colonial powers—French coins worth 2 sous or, equivalently, 24 diniers—stamped to make them British currency. A dog and a stampee were not necessarily of equal value. For example, the

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was subdivided into bits, each worth 9

pence A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...

, 6 black dogs or 4 stampees. Before 1811, 1 dollar equalled 11 bits (making a dog of a dollar and a stampee of a dollar); after 1811, 1 dollar equalled 12 bits (making a dog of a dollar and a stampee of a dollar). In 1797, however, a "black dog" is equated with a "stampee". Mary Prince's narrative tells of slaves in

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

buying a "dog's worth" of salted fish or pork on Sundays (the only day they could go to the market).The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. Related by Herself. With a Supplement by the Editor.
London: Published by F. Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831. Page 16.

References

Pre-decimalisation coins of the United Kingdom {{coin-stub