A Brief History of Barbados With Coins!

People seemed to enjoy the old British pence, so I thought I would do a little post using Barbadian coinage with some history thrown in for good measure.

Barbados was "discovered" by the Portuguese navigator Pedro a Campos in the late 16th century. He named it Los Barbados, 'the bearded ones'... there are theories that this refers to a race of Native Indians that were bearded, but the more popular theory is that this refers to the bearded fig tree. The island was then colonised in the name of King James I by the British on 14 May 1625. Captain John Powell landed at what would afterwards be called Jamestown, later Holetown, and the first settlement at Jamestown was created on the 17th of February 1627 by Powell's younger brother Captain Henry Powell.

Fast forward to 1966, Barbados gained its independence peacefully from Great Britain.

The coins feature elements of the history of Barbados.

The back of a 25 Cent coin featuring the Coat of Arms of Barbados.

In the official lingo of Heraldry, the coat of arms is as follows:

On a helmet to the dexter, lambrequined Gules and Or, the arm of a Barbadian palewise, in its fist two stalks of sugarcane in saltire proper. Or, a fig tree proper, between two flowers of the Red Pride of Barbados in chief, also proper. On the dexter a dolphin fish Azure, jelloped, crested and tailed Gules, and on the sinister a pelican proper

Read more here - the symbolism is fairly interesting. In the centre is the bearded fig tree, the Pride of Barbados flowers, a Dolphin and a Pelican (I know, it doesn't look like a dolphin!) and the raised fist holding two sugar cane stalks in the shape of St. Andrew's Cross.

The One Cent has been discontinued since May 2014, so they eventually will become rare I suppose. On the front we see the Barbados Broken Trident. If you're familiar with the iconography of the British Empire you'll recognise that Brittania holds the Trident of Neptune to show the Empire's control of the seas. Our trident is broken, signifying our break away from Britain and, in my own personal interpretation, perhaps also a little jab at the breaking of British Colonial power worldwide.

Five Cent featuring a lighthouse, an important feature of the island as it was a major trading port. There are still several lighthouses along each coast, many are derelict.

Ten Cent, a regular old seagull.. a common sight in most coastal areas of the world.

25 Cent featuring a windmill. The Windmill technology was brought to the island from Dutch Brazil in 1640 along with sugar cane. It was at this time that Barbados made the switch from tobacco to sugar cane, and the need for more labour that came with it. More and more Africans were enslaved and brought to the island to work the sugar cane fields. There is a famous windmill still operational called Morgan Lewis Windmill, have a look at it if you come to Barbados :)

One Dollar featuring our national fish the Flying Fish. Seeing these guys jump out and glide above the ocean is a really cool sight.

Detail of raised fist with St. Andrew's Cross made of sugar cane stalks.

Details of crest showing the National Motto of 'Pride and Industry' which personally I dislike. I would much rather they use the line from the National Anthem "In Strength & Unity" but I was not involved in 1966 so I had no say in that decision :)

That's all for now.