1937 Jamaican "yellow-metal"

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villa66
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1937 Jamaican "yellow-metal"

Beitrag von villa66 » Di 02.11.10 03:59

Great Britain had ended slavery in its Jamaican colony by 1838 and in 1839 had proclaimed the pound sterling as the island’s legal tender (to take effect on the last day of 1840). British homeland types filled Jamaican commercial channels.

The smaller silver denominations were particularly well-liked by Jamaicans, but British bronze met with much less success. Jamaicans disliked Britain’s copper coins, which they considered to be too dark.

To meet the increasing need for small change while satisfying Jamaican preferences for a “cleaner” coinage, in 1869 the British issued a special copper-nickel coinage for Jamaica consisting only of pennies and half-pennies (with a farthing added in 1880). These “white-metal” coins were struck for Jamaica through the reigns of Victoria, Edward VII, and George V.

Jamaican prosperity—always somewhat fragile because of the colony’s high population density—ended not long after WWI and the colony’s plight was further exacerbated by the Great Depression. Unlike many other of the world’s economies, however, Jamaica’s did not bounce back in the mid- to late-‘30s as the Depression began to lift. Evidence of Jamaican difficulties is suggested by the near total absence of new coins delivered during the last several years of George V’s reign (which ended in 1936): no half-pennies or pennies after 1928, and only £1,000 worth of farthings.

With the accession of George VI, Jamaica’s copper-nickel coinage was replaced with nickel-brass. Here’s the high value in the new “yellow-metal” series of 1937, one of the 1,200,000 Jamaican pennies that were a part of that year’s £7,500 worth of the new George VI coinage for Jamaica. The King’s small, high relief portrait was unsatisfactory and was replaced the following year, making a one-year type of the 1937 coins. (Which seems fitting, somehow, because of the profoundly stressed and confused Jamaica of that time.)

The “yellow-metal” coins were a success despite their often unhappy performance in high-humidity environments. They continued under Elizabeth II (beginning 1953), and lasted through Jamaican independence in 1962, all the way to the end of Jamaica’s pre-decimal coinage in 1969.

:) v.
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sigistenz
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Re: 1937 Jamaican "yellow-metal"

Beitrag von sigistenz » Mi 03.11.10 20:56

Another scholarly contribution - I enjoy them every time. thank you :D
Sigi

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