An Interesting British Colonial - Demerary & Essequibo Guilder

I came across this guy last week and had never seen nor heard of it before. I thought it was interesting since it was clearly a British coin but was using Dutch guilder as the unit of currency. I threw some bids at it and won it for a reasonable price and it just arrived this evening.

There isn't a ton of information about the colony that I could find.

Per wikipedia:
The colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 28 April 1812, when the British combined the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo into the colony of Demerara-Essequibo. They were officially ceded to Britain on 13 August 1814. On 20 November 1815 the agreement was ratified by the Netherlands
The colony continued to use Dutch denominations of currency even though under British control. The issued coins ranging from 3 bits up to 3 Guilder. These coins were minted with the colonies name on it, and were minted from 1809 to 1835. The dollar was introduced in 1839.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demerara-Essequibo

There is also a website apparently devoted to the "glory days" of the British Empire that has an interesting short write-up about the colonies.
https://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/demeraraandessequibo.htm

The coin itself is 0.8160 silver and weighs 7.77g. For 1835, there were only 22,000 minted.



Please feel free to post any other Demerary & Essequibo coins you may have, any other random British colonial coins, or anything else that fits the bill! Thanks for looking!

 

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I like it.

 

Me too! (obviously). I'm on the hunt for some more now.

 

Thanks a lot @furryfrog02, now I want one for my own collection.

 

I've seen a couple of stivers and smaller denomination guilders but they are not cheap.

 

Here's a British Colonial 1/4 Guilder of William IV from British Guiana, 1836


I guess they later switched over to the LDS system as the colonists became more used to it. Looks they took it from the Dutch in 1796. Below is a Victoria Guiana 4 pence for comparison.

 

It's so odd how the wear on the William IV are the same. They only leave the ear hole left

 

They probably used a similar die. The colony became part of British Guiana so no wonder why they're similar.

 

Essequibo & Demarary, Dutch/British Colony, Colonial Coinage, George III – 1760-1820, 1 Stiver, 1813, KM#10
(British Colony) Colonial Coinage, William IV – 1830-1837, 1/8 Guilder, 1835
KM#16 NGC AU55

 

Made at the Royal Mint in London.
Essequebo & Demarary.
I think its odd wiki uses a different spelling than what is on the token.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17300.html

 

I only have a couple other William IV coins and they all wear the same. Ends up with a smooth face and an ear hole.

 

Here's what he looks like just before the ear wears off (not Guiana).
Maybe old Willie IV had really deep ear holes...

 

1 stiver and the ½ stiver:

 

Well well well....... I've been looking for a new project with some substance. Thanks for posting... Very Nice!

There is a nice example of the 1835 for 522.00 on eBay now. Along with a few of the smaller denominations that are pictured above. That was just a quick search. This should keep me out of trouble for a while!

 

Like I said, they aren't cheap! Mine isn't in the best condition but it isn't too bad. I paid less than $20 when my ebay bucks were applied

 

Here is one that was used in the W.Indies & Sri Lanka ( Ceylon )
An odd denomination, Three Halfpence

William IIII, 1836, Three Halfpence
12mm, 0.69g



The coin was nice and bright when i first got it but, not long afterwards i lost it & when i found it a couple of years later it had turned black.
I can fully understand why they don't survive in great numbers, the tiny little beggars are easy to lose.

 

I figure a couple hundred should get me a pretty decent example? I don't like to go super cheap on pcs like this.

 

Probably. Like I said, these weren't even on my radar until I came across my example and was able to pick it up on the cheap. I haven't seen many examples on ebay completed auctions either so kind of hard to gauge.

 

Interesting history! Here's an example that likely never made it to the colonies.