Historical Sketch

Christopher Columbus sighted the Guyana coast on his third voyage of 1498. The first Europeans to set claims were Dutch in the early 17th century. The territory was colonized from west to east, thus forming five distinct colonies of Pomeroon, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice and Suriname. In 1682, all territories were sold to the Dutch West India Company, which established the Berbice and Suriname Companies to administer the two easternmost territories. In the early 1780s, Great Britain began attacking the Dutch possessions. After several changes of ownership, the four western territories were conquered in 1796, with only Suriname remaining as Dutch possession. The partition was finally agreed on in 1815. Great Britain first absorbed Pomeroon into Essequibo and united it with Demerara. In 1831 finally, Demerara-Essequibo and Berbice were merged to form the colony of Guyana. In 1966, Guyana attained independence became a republic four years later.

Monetary History Overview

When Britain conquered the four western territories in the early 19th century, the monetary situation was in disarray with payment transactions being made in unbacked paper money, mostly issued by private individuals. In the Essequibo-Demerara territory foreign trade coins had flown in from the Spanish possessions. In 1810, the colonial administration adopted the Guyanese Guilder as unit of account valued at one third of a Spanish Dollar. Attempts at withdrawing the private paper money were failing, and the colonial treasury even added its own paper. Medallic subsidiary coinage was issued for Demerara-Essequibo, while in the easternmost Berbice territory, this was started only after the creation of the Guyana colony. In 1839, the Guilder accounting was abolished and the 1st Guyanese Dollar at 50 Pence Sterling became the new unit, equal to the valuation of the Spanish Dollar. The private paper money was withdrawn, and the foreign trade coins were demonetized in 1876. The subsidiary coinage denominated in Guilder remained in circulation until the early 20th century. The British Guiana Bank had been founded as state-owned colonial bank in 1836, and in 1902, it also obtained the privilege to issue paper money. Three private commercial banks followed the example. The colonial administration established a currency commission in 1915, the state paper money circulated alongside the one of the four commercial banks.

After the Second World War, Great Britain decided to merge the three monetary areas in the West Indies, overseen by the currency boards of Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, which all three were using the Dollar at 50 Pence Sterling as unit of account. The currency commission of the British Caribbean Territories began operations in August 1951 and issued the British West Indies Dollar as common currency.

Already one year before independence, Guyana had left the common currency area and introduced the 2nd Guyanese Dollar as national currency in 1965. The peg to the Pound Sterling remained unaltered until 1975, when the Dollar repegged to the US currency instead. In the 1980s, in a series of devaluations more than 90% of the currency's value was lost. In 1991, another 56% were cut, and the exchange rate got floated. In a steady decline, the Dollar lost further 50% until the mid-2000s but has remained stable since then.

Guyana joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 26.09.1966.

Currency Units Timeline

Currency Institutes Timeline

Monetary History Sources