The Caribbean guilder

What the monetary union rests on

On 10 October 2010 Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the agreements behind that change provided for a common central bank, a single currency area and a fixed rate against the US dollar. A joint regulation, the Regeling Gemeenschappelijk Geldstelsel Curaçao en Sint Maarten, governs the union's money and names the Caribbean guilder as the Antillean guilder's successor.

The Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten, known as the CBCS, designs the notes and coins, commissions their production and holds the copyright on every design. Its board chair is chosen by the prime ministers of both islands.

How the launch kept slipping

Nothing changed at first. The Antillean guilder stayed in use after the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved, and in 2010 the planned currency was reported under the abbreviation CMg, for Curaçao and Sint Maarten guilder, at the same dollar rate as the old one. Then, in April 2014, the two governments agreed to study a separate central bank for Curaçao, and the new money was put on hold while they talked.

The union had critics. A former member of Curaçao's parliament argued that it lacked a forum for coordinating economic policy between the two governments, of the kind the Eastern Caribbean dollar has. In 2019 Sint Maarten's finance minister warned that only two years of reserve Antillean banknotes were left, and the islands weighed the US dollar and the euro as alternatives. The launch date then moved several more times, and the guilder arrived on 31 March 2025.

What the switch to new cash fixed in place

The conversion ran one to one. Accounts were converted automatically, and shops took Antillean cash until 30 June 2025. Commercial banks exchanged old notes until 31 March 2026; the CBCS keeps exchanging them until 31 March 2055.

The peg did not move. The CBCS states, in guidance updated in 2026, that the Caribbean guilder is pegged by law to the US dollar at 1.79 guilders to US$1, as the Antillean guilder was. The ISO code changed from ANG to XCG. A code shared by more than one country starts with an X, the bank explains, and the numeric code 532 carried over unchanged from the old guilder.

What the notes and coins carry

The Royal Canadian Mint strikes the coins: 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents, 1 guilder and 5 guilders. Crane Currency prints the notes, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 guilders, on cotton that the bank says lasts longer than the old paper. The 200 took the place of the Antillean 250, and the 20 replaced the 25.

There was no public design competition, a choice explained as a defence against counterfeiting. The designs, unveiled on 22 August 2024, take the sea as their theme. Marine animals fill the front of each note and landmarks of both countries the back. Seashells, turtles and waves appear on the coins, which differ slightly between Curaçao and Sint Maarten and pass interchangeably on both. Raised lines on the edges of each note let blind users count the denomination. The CBCS put the cost of design and production at about NAf 15 million.

Where the rest of the Dutch Caribbean went instead

Aruba keeps its florin, and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba took the US dollar directly on 1 January 2011. That split explains the name. The islands had first agreed on a Dutch Caribbean guilder, but the Dutch Caribbean takes in Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba too, so the regulation settled on Caribbean guilder.

The union stops there. Curaçao and Sint Maarten each carry the Caribbean guilder as their only currency, while the Netherlands in Europe pays in euros.