A dog or a black dog was a coin in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
of
Queen Anne of Great Britain
Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as ...
, made of
pewter
Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. Copper and antimony (and in antiquity lead) act as hardeners, but lead may be used in lower grades of ...
or
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
, 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
Spanish 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 ...
was subdivided into
bits, each worth 9
pence
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
, 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
Mary Prince (c. 1 October 1788 – after 1833) was a British abolitionist and autobiographer, born in Bermuda to a slave family of African descent. After being sold a number of times, and being moved around the Caribbean, she was brought to Engl ...
's narrative tells of slaves 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 ...
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
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