Talk:British West Indies dollar

I'm now realising that the "West Indies Dollar"
... as it is being called on Wikipedia and the Beewee dollar (BWI$) has got to be one of the *same* "creature"(If I can call it that.) It just came-to-me that based on the time frame that's being outlined for this "West Indies Dollar" / "WID" as it's called on Wikipedia, it has to actually be the "BWI$"...

All along this title of "West Indies Dollar" wasn't really ringing a bell with me but there was a def. period just before or around the 1950's that the "BWI$" was implemented and called the "BeeWee dollar". If phetically spelled.

"BeeWee" (BWI) was used to designate anything as being from British West Indies.
 * Note -- The "BeeWee" dollar- shouldn't be mistaken with BWIA ("BWee" Airways).

It wasn't uncommon at to hear prices quoted in the fashion: $x.xx "BeeWee" example: "$2.70 BeeWee" for British West Indies dollar.

I had learned that all along that the BWI$ was the first currenct used in the islands because before that you had a brief period with the Pound but before that for a long time was a non-standardized monetary situation in the Caribbean where there was a "Florin", a US$ and a British Pound all accepted between the islands eventually giving way to just the British Pound. Then BWI$ I couldn't figure out where with "WID$" as it's called on Wikipedia would have fit in. Thie WID$ dollar must actually be BWI$ dollar?

Some other sources I just came across to double check: -In the first link. The US government has the regional dollar terminology listed as "BWI". -In the second link. Under the year 1951 - that date is listed as the beginning of BVI's opposition of the regional BWI$. -In the third link. Another person's rendition of Caribbean history, from what I see the dates appear correct for the dates I know of concerning Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago in that source. -In the fourth link. Scroll down to "The Caribbean" it only talks about a BWI$.


 * US State Department abbreviations (1961-1963 version)
 * Under year 1951 - BVI's rejection of the regional BWI$
 * History of Caribbean politics
 * "The Caribbean"

Where'd this idea of "WID dollar" come from? CaribDigita 03:03, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Photo of the British West Indies dollar?
- Are these the BWI$ ??? or E.C.? You can see a **small** map with ("Br. Guiana") in South America included. Oddly enough Jamaica is not listed on the back?


 * Year 1956 -- British Caribbean Territories banknote (front)
 * Year 1956 -- British Caribbean Territories banknote (back)
 * Year 1958 -- British Caribbean Territories banknote (front)
 * Year 1958 -- British Caribbean Territories banknote (back)

The main website with these currencies - http://www.numismondo.com/ CaribDigita 23:45, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The photos above are of British West Indies dollars. They are not Eastern Caribbean dollars which didn't come into existence until 1965. David Tombe (talk) 01:21, 16 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Jamaica was never part of that arrangement. Neither were the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Honduras, the Cayman Islands, or the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was purely and Eastern Caribbean and British Guiana arrangemnet. David Tombe (talk) 01:19, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Anyone have a paid subscription to New York Times to see if this article is any good?
BEEWEE DOLLAR - November 6, 1955, Sunday Section: RESORTS TRAVEL, Page XX5, 111 words CaribDigita (talk) 03:46, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

The unanswered question
The use of the dollar as a unit of account was widespread in British Guiana and the Eastern Caribbean territories as a hang over from the time when the pieces of eight had been in widespread circulation. But silver dollars disappeared from circulation in the years following the great silver crisis of 1873. By the twentieth century, the British sterling coinage was well established as the exclusive coinage throughout the British West Indies. Some of the British West Indies, notably Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Bermuda had already been long using sterling as a unit of account as well. It seems strange that when the British government decided to set up a currency board in 1935 for the Eastern Caribbean territories, that they didn't use it as an opportunity to uniformize the accounts systems to sterling and bring them all into line with Jamaica. Does anybody know the answer to this one? David Tombe (talk) 23:54, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Royal Bank of Canada issues for Trinidad and Tobago
Is there any way of getting the pictures from this web link legitimately displayed in the main article? David Tombe (talk) 01:13, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

"Eastern Group"?
Would this not imply that there would also be a "British Caribbean Territories, Western Group"? But clearly no such thing exists. Why were the coins marked in that way when there was no other "group" of "British Caribbean Territories" for them to be confused with? 75.76.213.106 (talk) 08:30, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on British West Indies dollar. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110706132053/http://centralbank.org.bb/WEBCBB.nsf/webpage/580B8A7909CC2876042573650078A7A3?OpenDocument to http://www.centralbank.org.bb/WEBCBB.nsf/webpage/580B8A7909CC2876042573650078A7A3?OpenDocument

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Summary of dates for BWI$
The information presented in West Indies dollar establishes the following dates:
 * 1946: A West Indian Currency Conference agreed to establish a unified decimal currency system based on a West Indian dollar.
 * 1949: The British government formalized the dollar system of accounts in British Guiana and the Eastern Caribbean territories by introducing the British West Indies dollar (BWI$).
 * 1955: Until 1955, the BWI$ existed only as banknotes in conjunction with sterling fractional coinage. Decimal coins replaced the sterling coins in 1955.

So I am changing the beginning date of the use of BWI$ from 1935 to 1949 in the lead paragraph of West Indies dollar and in the info box of British Guiana; agreeing with existing text in Antigua dollar and Currencies of the British West Indies.

—Coroboy (talk) 11:49, 21 July 2019 (UTC)