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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Eidolon, post: 4509993, member: 102103&quot;]Day 59:&nbsp; Danish West Indies coins (now the US Virgin Islands)</p><p><br /></p><p>The Danish West indies had a bit of an odd monetary system.&nbsp; Up to the mid-1800s then had the rigsdaler, which equaled 96 skilling.&nbsp; This was parallel to the system in use in Denmark at the time, but the West Indian version was worth only 4/5 of the Danish one.&nbsp; (Why 96 skilling?&nbsp; 12 penning = 1 skilling, 16 skilling = 1 mark, 6 mark = 1 ridsdaler.&nbsp; Oh, and 8 mark = 1 krone.&nbsp; So 16 x 6 = 96 skilling to the rigsdaler.)</p><p>By the time the Danish West Indies had its own money, the penning was too small a denomination to be in use, so the skilling was the smallest monetary unit.</p><p><br /></p><p>After decimalization in 1849, 100 cents equaled 1 daler.&nbsp; However, there was a parallel system worth 1/5 as much, with 100 bits = 1 franc.&nbsp; Based on the gold content of the West Indian gold <a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17054.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces17054.html" rel="nofollow">20 francs/4 dalers</a>, (6.4516 g .900 fine), which was the exact same standard as the French <a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8003.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8003.html" rel="nofollow">20 francs</a> at the time it was adopted, I believe the Danish West Indian monetary system was based on the French one.&nbsp; Why France and not Denmark?&nbsp; I&#039;m guessing the presence of the nearby French Caribbean colonies, which were quite wealthy at the time, made their money more likely than to be encountered that of the Danish homeland.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coins below were dual-denominated, in both bits and cents.&nbsp; Both are from 1905, and seem to have been single-year types.&nbsp; The Danish West Indies only minted coinage occasionally anyway.&nbsp; Denmark sold the colony to the United States during World War 1, in 1917.&nbsp; I believe Denmark was neutral in that war, but having a money-losing and hard-to-defend colony in the Caribbean must have been an unattractive burden when surrounded by a World War which wrecked commerce.&nbsp; The US changed the name to the Virgin Islands, but kept the daler currency unit for 17 years.&nbsp; In 1934 they switched from the daler to the dollar, which I find somehow hilarious because I am immature.&nbsp; (1 US dollar = 1.0363 daler)</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the symbolism on the reverse, I haven&#039;t found a specific reference.&nbsp; It doesn&#039;t seem to be from the Danish coat of arms.&nbsp; I see a trident, sickle and caduceus crossed, which I interpret to represent the basis of the economy:&nbsp; fishing (trident), agriculture (sickle) and trade (caduceus, the symbol of Hermes, patron god of commerce, and confused health insurance companies).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1117728[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1117735[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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