The Barbados dollar

What Barbados spent before its own dollar

Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the sterling system to the West Indies, but Spanish and later Mexican silver pieces of eight went on circulating well into the nineteenth century. An imperial order-in-council of 1838 led Barbados to adopt British sterling coinage formally in 1848. Merchants kept their accounts in dollars all the same.

Paper money came from several hands. The Royal Bank of Canada issued 5, 20 and 100 dollar notes from 1909, and from 1920 those notes printed the sterling value beside the dollar one. Commercial banks issued Barbadian money through the 1920s and 1930s, and the government issued dollar notes between 1938 and 1949. From 1949 the British West Indies dollar tied Barbados to the other British territories in the eastern Caribbean, and the British Caribbean Currency Board supplied the money through the 1950s. A decimal coinage replaced British coins in 1955, with the new cent worth half an old penny. The Eastern Caribbean dollar took over in 1965.

Who decides what goes on the money

Parliament founded the Central Bank of Barbados by an Act in May 1972, and only the bank may issue Barbadian notes and coins. Its board recommends who appears on a note. The Minister of Finance gives final approval over the denominations and the design, and no living person may be shown.

The bank said in 2018 that a British company, De La Rue, printed its notes and that the Royal Canadian Mint struck its coins. The first notes kept the colours of the Eastern Caribbean money they replaced: red for $1, green for $5, purple for $20, grey for $100. Four of the men on the current notes are National Heroes: Charles Duncan O'Neal on the $10, Samuel Jackman Prescod on the $20, Errol Barrow on the $50 and Sir Grantley Adams on the $100. John Redman Bovell is on the $2 and Sir Frank Worrell on the $5. Worrell replaced Prescod on the $5 in 1976, the one portrait change the bank had made by 2018.

How the banknote series changed

The 1973 issue came in 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100 dollars. A $2 note followed in 1980 and a $50 in 1989. The $1 note stopped in 1988, and the $1 coin was made smaller at the same time.

Until 2013 the Parliament Buildings filled the back of every note. The series issued on 2 May 2013 kept the portraits and gave each back a design tied to the person on the front, with raised dots for the visually impaired, one on the $2 and six on the $100. The bank rolled out polymer notes on 5 December 2022, and they circulate beside the cotton-paper ones. Only the original $100 has been withdrawn. Every other Barbadian note remains legal tender.

Why the coins went over to plated steel

The first coins of 1973 were the 1, 5, 10 and 25 cents and the $1, a seven-sided piece with a flying fish. In 2007 the bank switched to plated steel blanks to cut costs. Even so, each one cent coin cost five cents to mint, and the bank stopped issuing it in 2014. The 5 cent coin has a smooth edge and shows the South Point Lighthouse. The 10 and 25 cent coins are ridged, a difference meant for people who cannot see the design. A shop does not have to accept more than $10 in coins for one purchase.