Danish West Indian daler
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The daler (Danish, plural the same or dalere, English: dollar) was the currency of the Danish West Indies between 1849 and 1917.
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[edit] History
The daler replaced the rigsdaler in 1849. No subdivisions were issued until 1859, although a variety of coins were countermarked for use on the islands. In 1859, coins denominated in cents were introduced, with 100 cents = 1 daler.
In 1904, two new denominations were introduced, the bit and franc. The four units were related as 5 bit = 1 cent, 100 bit = 20 cents = 1 franc, 100 cents = 5 francs = 1 daler. Coins were issued each denominated in two units, bits and cents, francs and cents, or francs and daler. Banknotes were issued denominated in francs. The franc was equal to the French franc, with text on the reverse of the banknotes (see [1]) giving the value in Danish kroner and øre, with 1 franc = 72 øre.
The daler was replaced by the U.S. dollar when the Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands, with 1 dollar = 1.0365 daler.
[edit] Coins
Between 1849 and 1859, U.S., Brazilian, British, British West Indies, French, Dutch and Spanish coins were stamped with a crowned FRVII for circulation in the Danish West Indies. Denominations listed in Krause & Mishler are ½ and 1 cent, ¼, ½ and 1 dollar from the U.S.A., ⅛ and ¼ dollar from the British West Indies' anchor coinage, British farthings, ½ and 6 pence, 1 shilling, ½ and 1 crown, French 5 sous and ½ franc, Mexican 8 reales, Dutch 25 cent and Spanish 4 maravedíes, 1, 2 and 4 reales.
In 1859, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 cents. Except for the bronze 1 cent, these coins were silver. In 1904, with the new currency system, gold coins were introduced in denominations of 4 daler (20 francs) and 10 daler (50 francs). These were followed in 1905 by denominations of ½, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 40 cents. These coins also bore the denominations 2½, 5, 10 and 50 bit, 1 and 2 francs. The ½, 1 and 2 cents were struck in bronze, the 5 cents in nickel and the other denominations in silver.
[edit] Banknotes
In 1849, the State Treasury introduced notes in denominations of 2, 3, 5, 10, 50 and 100 dalere. The Bank of St Thomas issued notes denominated in dollars between 1837 and 1889. It is not indicated on the notes which dollar this was.
In 1905, the Dansk-Vestindiske Nationalbank (Danish West Indies National Bank) introduced notes in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 100 francs, which also bore indications of their value in Danish kroner, 3.6, 7.2, 14.4 and 72 kroner.
[edit] References
- Krause, Chester L. and Clifford Mishler (1991). Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801-1991, 18th ed., Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-150-1.
- Pick, Albert (1994). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues, Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors), 7th ed., Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-207-9.
[edit] External links
- Don's World Coin Gallery - Danish West Indies
- Ron Wise's World Paper Money - Danish West Indies Mirror site
- The Global History of Currencies - Virgin Islands (United States)
- Global Financial Data currency histories table (
Microsoft Excel format)
![[1]](http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/DanishWestIndies/DanishWestIndiesP17-5Francs-1905-donatedcm_b.jpg){kind=link}