The Gambian dalasi
Currency · GMD · 1 country
The dalasi arrived in 1971, the year the Central Bank of The Gambia took over the assets and liabilities of The Gambia Currency Board and decimalised the money. Five dalasis replaced each Gambian pound, and every dalasi divides into 100 bututs. The notes issued since August 2019 show birds and the national coat of arms.
No sign of its own
The record gives the dalasi no sign of its own. Wikipedia records the letter D, the initial of the name, and the ISO code is GMD. The hundredth, the butut, takes its name from the Wolof butuut, a small thing.
- ISO code
- GMD
- ISO number
- 270
- Subunit
- butut, 1/100
An amount, written out
GMD 1,234.50
- GMD 1,234.50English
- D 1,234.50EnglishGambia
Where the Gambian dalasi is the official currency
In The Gambia it circulates as 25 and 50 butut coins, a 1 dalasi coin and notes of 5 to 200 dalasis from the central bank.
About the Gambian dalasi
What The Gambia paid with before coins
Until the middle of the nineteenth century payments in The Gambia were made in cowrie shells, and the earliest coin-like money was brass or copper rods and metal tokens. By 1880 French silver 5 franc pieces were in general use. From 1892 the African Banking Corporation in Lagos supplied British coin to West Africa and shipped redundant silver back to London, a job that passed to the Bank of British West Africa in 1894. British pennies and tenths of a penny were issued from 1907, but in 1912 the French pieces still dominated.
How a board in London ran the money
A committee set up in 1912 to find a more uniform currency became the West African Currency Board. At the end of 1915 the board enlarged its constitution to issue notes. Each colony would get notes of one design, marked with its own issuing office and issued under the authority of the board in London, and that arrangement lasted unchanged until 1949.
Waterlow and Sons in London printed the first notes, for 2 shillings, 10 shillings and one pound, and they reached The Gambia towards the end of 1917. The 2 shilling note was disliked. So was a 1 shilling note printed by the Bank of England the next year. A 5 pound note of 1919 was withdrawn after four years and reissued only in 1954.
When the Gambian pound became the dalasi
The Gambia gained internal self-government in October 1963. A currency ordinance that came into force on 1 October 1964 formed The Gambia Currency Board, and its first notes, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson, went into issue four days later. Independence followed on 18 February 1965. On 21 November 1966 the board replaced the West African coin with its own, struck by the Royal Mint, and added a 4 shilling piece; an 8 shilling coin followed in 1970.
In 1971 the central bank decimalised. One dalasi was set at 4 shillings. The Royal Mint struck the new coins and Bradbury Wilkinson printed notes of 1, 5, 10 and 25 dalasis, with the portrait of Dawda Jawara, the republic's president, in place of the royal effigy. The reverses of the coins reused the designs of the old shilling and penny coins.
Which notes and coins carry the dalasi now
The Gambia issued a 1 dalasi coin in 1987 modelled on the British 50 pence. In 1998 a new series put the coat of arms where Jawara's portrait had been, and today only the 25 and 50 butut and 1 dalasi coins circulate. The smaller ones disappeared as their value fell.
The notes changed faster. A 2006 series dropped the white borders. On 15 April 2015 the central bank issued a family with a new 20 and a new 200 dalasis, all bearing Yahya Jammeh's portrait. An interim reprint in February 2018 began replacing them, and on 6 August 2019 the bank released the present family of 5 to 200 dalasis, with a bird and the coat of arms on every front.
Where the word dalasi may come from
Nobody knows where dala comes from. In several languages of the region the words dalasi and batut, among others, once named the old 5 franc note of French West Africa. Some trace dalasi to a pronunciation of dollar, but variants in other Mandinka dialects, such as daasi, count against it. Butut comes from the Wolof butuut, a small thing.
Common questions
Questions about the Gambian dalasi
What is a butut worth?
A butut is a hundredth of a dalasi. The name comes from the Wolof butuut, meaning a small thing. Coins of 1, 5 and 10 bututs have dropped out of use as their value fell, and only the 25 and 50 butut coins circulate beside the 1 dalasi coin.
Why do Gambian banknotes show birds?
The family of notes the Central Bank of The Gambia released on 6 August 2019 puts a bird beside the coat of arms on every front: a giant kingfisher on the 5, a vinaceous dove on the 10, black crowned cranes on the 100. It was meant to replace, gradually, the notes of 2015 that carried Yahya Jammeh's portrait. The backs show scenes such as the Wassu stone circles, fishermen and rice planting.
What did the dalasi replace?
The Gambian pound, at five dalasis to the pound, so one dalasi was worth four shillings. The Gambia Currency Board had issued that pound since 1964, when it took over from the West African Currency Board, which had run the money of Britain's West African colonies from London. Before any of that, according to the Central Bank of The Gambia, people paid in cowrie shells until the middle of the nineteenth century, then in brass and copper rods, and by 1880 mostly in French silver 5 franc pieces.
Does dalasi come from the word dollar?
Possibly, but the evidence points against it. Wikipedia records the idea that dalasi is a pronunciation of dollar and notes that variants in other Mandinka dialects, such as daasi, counter it. Across the region, dalasi and similar words once named the old 5 franc note of French West Africa.