It's a bit obscure but I came across these coins in a catalogue, but also read that Demerara and Essequibo merged with Berbice in 1831 to create British Guiana. Nevertheless, the coins continued to say Demerara and Essequibo until 1836. Was this just a convenience thing by the Royal Mint or was there more going on behind the scenes with the merger of these colonies?
The colony continued to use Dutch currency throughout British control, with issued coins ranging from 3 bits up to 3 guilder. Coins bearing the colony's name were minted from 1809 to 1835. The Dutch currency was demonetised after unification and in 1839 was replaced with the British Guiana dollar. I think they did not bother to change the monies /coins until 1839.
I think a lot of colonies changed hands during the Napoleonic Wars. The Netherlands was not in a good position to defend its colonies from the UK while it was occupied by France. Perhaps they kept the old currency because it would have been more readily accepted by the locals? The UK also had shortages of its own copper currency at the start of this era, which is why private copper tokens (Conder tokens) flourished during the Napoleonic Wars.
According to Guyana's Coinage by David Granger, "in 1836 the The Colonial Bank of the West Indies and the British Guiana Bank were granted their charters". I don't understand how colonial banking worked. Perhaps a legal entity was needed to issue the coins, or perhaps the legal entity needed coins to back deposits?
Okay, so in "A History of Currency in the British Colonies" on page 132 it says that the coinage was specifically not for Berbice, even though the colonies had been united. Is Guyana's Coinage a good book on the history of these coins? I hadn't heard of it.
It's more a pamphlet, just 12 pages long, covering coins from 1808-2008. It was written by the former president of Guyana and published in Guyana.
