Historical Sketch

Several European navigators reached individual islands of the group scattered across the Pacific, among them the US-American Arent de Peyster in 1819, who named them after the owner of his ship, Edward Ellice. An Anglo-German agreement of 1886 partitioned all then unclaimed islands in the central Pacific between the two colonial powers, leaving the Ellice Islands in the British zone. In 1892, Great Britain established a protectorate, administration was combined with the geographically and culturally unrelated Gilbert Islands. In preparation for independence, the two island groups were separated in 1975. In 1978, the Ellice Islands attained independence under the name of Tuvalu.

Monetary History Overview

Due to their remoteness Great Britain did not regulated the monetary affairs of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands for half a century. An ordinance of 1939 officially introduced the Australian currency, which remained so after the Australian currency decimalisation of 1966. Beginning 1976, the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands were separated, each of them confirming the Australian currency. After independence in 1978, Tuvalu continued to use the Australian Dollar instead of a national currency of its own. Local subsidiary coinage was authorized in a 1976 currency ordinance before independence, to circulate alongside the Australian banknotes and coins.

Tuvalu joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 24.06.2010.

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