What Currency Used In Jamaica

Official currency of Jamaica from 1840 to 1969

Jamaican pound
1d of 1937
Unit
Symbol	£‎
Denominations
Subunit
1⁄20	shilling
1⁄240	penny
Symbol
shilling	s or /–
penny	d
Banknotes	5/–, ten/–, £1, £5
Coins	1⁄2 d, 1d
Demographics
User(s)	Jamaica
Issuance
Central bank	Depository financial institution of Jamaica
Website	world wide web.boj.org.jm
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

The pound was the official currency of Jamaica between 1840 and 1969. Information technology circulated as a mixture of sterling coinage and locally issued coins and banknotes and was always equal to the pound sterling. The Jamaican pound was also used in the Cayman and Turks and Caicos Islands.

History [edit]

The history of currency in Jamaica should be considered in the wider motion-picture show of the currencies of the British West Indies. Jamaica was the only British W Indies territory to use special regional issues of the sterling coinage. (rare exceptions to this are a copper penny issued in the Bahamas in 1806, and the iv pence coin which was peculiarly issued for all the British West Indies, and subsequently only for British Guiana.)

The earliest coin used in Jamaica was the Castilian copper maravedí. For nearly four hundred years Spanish dollars, known as pieces of eight were in widespread employ on the globe's trading routes, including the Caribbean Sea region. Notwithstanding, following the revolutionary wars in Latin America, the source of these silver trade coins dried upwardly. The terminal Spanish dollar was minted at the Potosi mint in 1825. The United Kingdom had adopted the gilt standard in 1821, and then 1825 was an opportune time to introduce the sterling coinage into all the British colonies. An purple social club-in-council was passed in that year for the purposes of facilitating this aim by making sterling coinage legal tender in the colonies at the specified rate of $one = 4s 4d stg. (one Spanish dollar to iv shillings and four pence sterling). As sterling was pegged to a gold standard, this commutation rate did not realistically correspond the value of the silvery in the Spanish dollars compared to the value of the gold in the British gold sovereign. Therefore, the order-in-council had, in many colonies, the effect of actually driving sterling coinage out rather than encouraging its circulation. Remedial legislation had to be introduced in 1838 and then as to change to the more than realistic rate of $1 = 4s 2d. However, in Jamaica, British Honduras, Bermuda, and later in the Commonwealth of the bahamas likewise, the official rating was set aside in favour of what was known as the 'Maccaroni' tradition in which a British shilling, referred to as a 'Maccaroni', was treated as one quarter of a dollar. The common link between these four territories was the Bank of Nova Scotia which brought in the 'Maccaroni' tradition, resulting in the successful introduction of both sterling coinage and sterling accounts. In 1834 silver coins of threepence and iii halfpennies (1+ one⁄two pence) were introduced, valued at 1⁄two real and 1⁄4 real. The three halfpenny came to exist chosen "quartile" or "quatties". These, in detail, were used in church collections due to a belief amid the blackness population that copper coins were inappropriate for that purpose. Hence, they came to be chosen "Christian quatties".

In 1839 an human action was passed by Parliament declaring that every bit of December 31, 1840, but sterling coinage would be legal tender in Jamaica, demonetizing all of the Spanish coins, with the exception of the gold doubloon which was valued at £three 4s. Coins in use were thus the farthing ( 1⁄4 d), halfpenny, penny, iii halfpenny (1+ ane⁄2 d), threepence, sixpence, shilling, florin (two/–), half-crown (2/6), and crown (five/–).

The emancipation of the slaves in 1838 increased the need for coinage in Jamaica, particularly low denomination coins, but black Jamaicans were even so reluctant to utilise copper coins. The solution was to use cupronickel, adopted in 1869. Penny and halfpennies were minted for use in Jamaica, becoming the start truly Jamaican coins. Starting time in 1880, the farthing was too minted in cupronickel.

In 1904, the Currency Notes Police force was passed, "constituting a Lath of Commissioners to issue notes called currency notes for the value of 10 shillings each," although no such notes were issued at that time. This constabulary was amended past Law 17 of 1918 which authorized "the issue of currency notes for such denominations as may be approved." The Commissioners of Currency issued the start notes under these laws on 15 March 1920, in the denominations of 2/six, v/–, and 10/–, with each note carrying the inscription that they were "Issued under the authority of Police 27 of 1904 & Law 17 of 1918." Only these three smaller denominations were issued by the Board of Commissioners; £i and £five notes were issued past the chartered banks operating in Jamaica.^[1] All the same, in 1940, the government began producing £1 and £five notes.

In Oct 1960, the Banking company of Jamaica was given the sole right to mint coins and produce banknotes in Jamaica. Their notes were issued on May 1, 1961, in denominations of 5/–, ten/–, £1 and £5.

On January 30, 1968, the Jamaican Business firm of Representatives voted to decimalize the currency, introducing a new dollar worth x/–, and divided into 100 cents (ane cent thus being equal to exactly 1¹⁄_vd). At the time, coins of ane cent (1ⁱ⁄_vd), five cents (6d), ten cents (1/–), 20 cents (two/–) and 25 cents (2/half dozen) were produced and banknotes of l cents (5/–), $1 (10/–), $2 (£i), and $ten (£5). These coins and banknotes went into circulation on September viii, 1969.

The new Jamaican dollar (and the Cayman Islands dollar) differed from all the other dollars in the British West Indies in that it was essentially a 10 shilling sterling unit, similar to the mode decimalisation was carried out in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; the other dollars in the West Indies either began on the Us dollar unit or the Spanish dollar unit.

Image	Denomination	Obverse	Opposite
[1]	five/–	Queen Elizabeth Ii	Dunn's River Falls
	10/–	Queen Elizabeth II	Assistant plantation
[2]	£ane	Queen Elizabeth II	Harvesting
[three]	£5	Queen Elizabeth 2	Storage plant, adult female with fruit basket