Christopher Columbus discovered Jamaica during his second voyage to the New World in 1493-94. The Spanish took possession of the island in 1509. Jamaica was conquered by a British expeditionary force, sent by Oliver Cromwell, in 1655 and under the Treaty of Madrid, Jamaica became a British possession in 1670. Jamaica became a crown colony in 1866, gained self-government in 1944, was part of the Federation of the West Indies from January 3, 1958 until May 31, 1962. Jamaica became an independent constitutional monarchy on August 6, 1962.
Before the nineteenth century, Spanish silver dollars and gold coins, Portuguese gold Joes from Brazil and French base-metal coins, known as “black dogs” and “stampees” were the primary coins circulating in the Caribbean. The coins were usually mutilated by either cutting large coins into smaller segments (bits) to provide fractional coinage, removing a piece from the center of the coin and giving the center plug and the outer ring separate values, inserting a small plug of another metal, such as gold, into the coin in order to raise its value, or counterstamping the coin for local use. The first local coinage was produced in 1758 by counterstamping Spanish gold and silver coins.
The first coins were issued for the British West Indies in 1822. These were small denomination coins that supplemented the counterstamped gold and silver coins. During the 1800s, English (GBP), US (USD) and Canadian coins circulated in Jamaica, and in 1846 silver farthings were minted for Jamaica. Fractional coinage of the US and Canada ceased to be legal tender on October 23, 1863, silver dollars of the US ceased to be legal tender in 1876, and British banknotes ceased to be legal tender on July 3, 1919.
Silver farthings were minted for Jamaica in 1846, and other subsidiary coinage was minted for Jamaica beginning in 1869. Local banks issued Pound (JMP) banknotes from the 1830s until 1941. The Treasury issued banknotes between 1918 and 1961, and in 1961 the Bank of Jamaica became the note issuing authority for Jamaica. British West Indies Dollars (XBWD) were made legal tender in 1951, but they had limited circulation relative to the Jamaican Pound. The Pound was divisible into 20 Shillings and 240 Pence.
After gaining its independence on August 6, 1962, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands became separate British colonies from Jamaica, but they continued to use the Jamaican pound for several years. On September 8, 1969, Jamaica replaced the Jamaica Pound with the Jamaica Dollar (JMD) with 2 Jamaica Dollars equal to 1 Jamaica Pound. The Dollar is divisible into 100 Cents. |
