The history of currency in the British colony of

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

closely follows 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. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver

pieces of eight 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 ...

(

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 ...

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

formally adopting the British sterling coinage in the year 1851. However, despite the circulation of British coins in St. Lucia, the silver

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 "Lon ...

signalled the end of the silver dollar era in the West Indies, and silver dollars were demonetized in St. Lucia in 1882. 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 o ...

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

, the currency of St. Lucia became officially tied up with that of the British

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.

History

From 1851, the

British pound Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

circulated on Saint Lucia, replacing the

Saint Lucia livre The livre was the currency of Saint Lucia until 1814. The Saint Lucia livre was a French colonial currency, distinguished by the use of various cut Spanish and Spanish colonial coins. The livre was subdivided into 20 ''sous'', each of 12 '' deniers ...

. Sometime after 1882, private banknotes, denominated in dollars, began to be issued on the island. From 1920, some of these notes also bore the value in sterling, with 1 dollar = 4

s 2

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 ...

. During this period, no subdivision of the dollar was issued and British coins continued to circulate. The government of Saint Lucia also issued paper money in 1920, denominated in sterling. In 1935, the

was established, equal in value to the earlier Saint Lucia dollar and other similar issues elsewhere in the British West Indies. The last distinct issues of banknotes were made for Saint Lucia in 1940. Since 1965, the

East Caribbean States 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 sinc ...

has circulated.

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 in 1920, whilst the Colonial Bank issued notes until 1926 and Barclays Bank (which took over the Colonial Bank) issued notes between 1926 and 1940.

References

External links

Economy of Saint Lucia History of Saint Lucia Currencies of the Caribbean British Saint Lucia {{SaintLucia-stub