The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has announced that within four months there will be a colored $1 coin.
While remaining tight-lipped on the exact color the new coin will be or the reason (s) for the change, Deputy Governor of the bank, Trevor Brathwaite said it will be the first in the region.
“Coming in October there will be a colored EC$ 1 coin,” he said. “It’s a surprise.”
The introduction of the colored $1 coin is one of two major changes in coins being introduced by the ECCB.
The bank has announced that come July 1, 2015, it will begin phasing out the one-cent and two-cent coins out of circulation.
The phasing out process will take place over a five-year period.
The East Caribbean dollar is the currency used in eight of the nine nations in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla (UK Territory), and Montserrat (UK Territory).
The British Virgin Islands is the only member of the OECS that uses its own currency.
Pretty soon they’ll play with the money until it has NO VALUE. $1 US will no longer be $2.66/$2.67 it might be $100 to $1 US just like Jamaica. NO VALUE.
Funny money is not sound money
It shouldn’t be “a surprise”, and they should share their reasons for what they do. They work for the people, not the other way around.
Some of you dwell on color, etc. A colored coin for colored people. I wonder what color will it be?
This new colored coin would be interesting. Rest assured that the material used to produce it will not be expensive.
Every country should have either a paper or coin $1.00. The only thing is that one cent headache. Nothing will cost 0.99 cents anymore. It will be a $1 or more.
The ECCB needs to stop these regular changes to the identity of the various denominations. They have created a problem for the banks since the new silver $1 and $0.25 coins went into circulation. You see, the banks weigh the coins to count the value. The new coins have a low metallic content and are lighter than their predecessors. The banks now can’t tell the value of a bag of mixed $1 or $0.25 coins (old and new) by weighing. They now have to manually count or acquire new counters.
It will be interesting to see if this new coloured coin has yet a different weight, and shape and size!!!. Funny this new coloured coin is coming in shortly after removing the brass coloured ones from circulations.
And yes,, those changes are messing up businesses with machinery that use those denominations.
Come on guys lets get our act together. The US denominations have not changed in recent history.
Too many changes in a relatively short period!!!
The British Virgin Island is not using the own currency, they are using American currencies. I might stand to be corrected
Guess they don’t know the difference. Tortola do use US currency. Tortola DO NOT have its own money. Educate yourselves.
To the individual who wrote this article, the British Virgin Island does not have or use it’s own currency it uses US Dollars
They phsaing out the one cent and two cents becuase it is too costly but right away I bet it will be more costly to make the coloured coins. Smh
U are correct it is called seigniorage a sure sign of the economic decline of the OECS
You realise the E.C. dollar has been pegged to the U.S. dollar for decades, right? Therefore it’s U.S. monetary policy that’s led to the uselessness of the one and two cent pieces, it’s not a local policy. Anyway, thank God we don’t actually use the Sucre!
thats the old 1 dollar coin just saying…
ADMIN: Caption for photo reads “What the $1 coin presently looks like”
exactly ,which it isn’t, the current dollar ,which is the present dollar that is currently being minted is the shinny more rounded dollar with an older image of the Queen
Martinique is part of the OECS. It’s now 10 nations.
Carcon, sorry but you are wrong. Martinique is only an associate member of the OECS.
Martinique falls under France. Does Martinique not have its own money? Being French, I doubt it will make changes to its coins.
The alloy of our dollar today , cupro-nickel, is too expensive. The bank wants to have a cheaper coin. Bet the new colour will be brown so we wont notice when it starts rusting! Everything downgraded these days, except politicians perks and their egos.
if it is going to be brown to hide the rust then I WANT TO BET A DOLLAR IS THE CHINESE THAT MAKING IT FOR THEM hahaha – just check the stadium ooops!!