British Caribbean / East Caribbean dollar
British Caribbean / East Caribbean dollar: a currency still in use.
- Dates in use
- Still in use; introduction date not established here
- Currency code
- XCD
- Ancestry branch
- Spanish real / peso
Where this money came from
3 ancestors · 3 descendants. Follow a name to its history. Select a dated connection for its evidence.
The story
ECCB’s report dates ECCA’s succession to BCCB and its first notes to 1965; ECCB was established in 1983 and issued notes in 1984. [1]
ECCB records EC$4.80 per pound before the July 1976 switch to EC$2.70 per U.S. dollar. [2]
Turning points
Account-unit observation
The inherited regional dollar account unit retained its identity under the 1838 sterling rating. [3]
Account-unit observation
The British West Indian dollar already existed as a principal unit before the regional currency-board reforms; the 1946 conference proposed retaining it as chief unit. [4]
Account-unit observation
Barbados government accounts moved to dollar reckoning from 1April 1949 under Public Accounts Act1of 1949. [5]
Account-unit observation
Barbados governmentaccounts changefromsterling to dollarsandcents effective1April 1949 underPublicAccountsAct1. [6]
Multiple currency unification
BCCB notes took over the note circulation of Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad in 1951. The Barbados system is one documented input, not the only one. [7]
Replaced by
ECCA-member area only. [1]
Changing monetary anchors
Pound sterling · ECCA episode: 6 October 1965 – 7 July 1976
4.80 XCD per GBP. Terms and evidence ↗
United States dollar · 7 July 1976; confirmed through July 2021
2.70 XCD per USD. Terms and evidence ↗
Sources and evidence
- Eastern Caribbean Central Bank · Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 2014–2015 C189 ↗
- Eastern Caribbean Central Bank · Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 2014–2015 C190 ↗
- H. A. Shannon · The Modern Colonial Sterling Exchange Standard, IMF Staff Papers2(2)(April 1952),318–362 C1506 ↗
- George Hall, Secretary of State for the Colonies, UK House of Commons · West Indies (Decimal Currency),5June 1946, Hansard volume423 columns 1994–1995 C1516 ↗
- Eric Armstrong · A History of Money and Banking in Barbados,1627–1973 (University of the West Indies Press,2010) C1517 ↗
- Eric Armstrong · A History of Money and Banking in Barbados,1627–1973 (University of the West Indies Press,2010) C1473 ↗
- Central Bank of Barbados · Annual Report 2013: Tracing the Origins of Money in Barbados C984 ↗
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Cite this page
“British Caribbean / East Caribbean dollar.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Reader edition 2026-10-13; research dataset v44. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/T-FTM000515.html