Eastern Carribean Story

The East Caribbean States, formerly the British Caribbean Territories (Eastern Group), formed a currency board in 1950 to provide the constituent territories of Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada with a common currency, thereby permitting withdrawal of the regular British Pound currency. This was dissolved in 1965 and after the breakup, the East Caribbean Territories, a grouping including Barbados, the Leeward and Windward Islands, came into being. Coinage of the dissolved ‘Eastern Group’ continues to circulate. Paper currency of the East Caribbean Authority was first issued in 1965 and although Barbados withdrew from the group they continued using them prior to 1973 when Barbados issued a decimal coinage.

The East Caribbean dollar (sign: $; code: XCD) is the currency of eight of the nine members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. It has existed since 1965 and is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $ or, alternatively, EC$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The EC$ is subdivided into 100 cents. It has been pegged to the United States dollar at US$1 = EC$2.7 since 1976.

Six of the states using the EC$ are independent states: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The other two are British overseas territories: Anguilla and Montserrat. These states are all members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. The only OECS member not using the East Caribbean dollar as their de facto currency is the British Virgin Islands, which uses the U.S. dollar instead. Queen Elizabeth II appears on the banknotes and the obverse of the coins: she is the head of state of all the states and territories using the EC$, except Dominica.

Eastern carribean banknote is one of the most beautiful paper money in this world. What I have here is a 2004 five dollar banknote with almost the same security features with the current banknote. It have country code (I still cannot find M stand for which country) and machine readable bar code.

See-through Feature

On all of the banknotes, there are fish in the bottom left hand corner on the front of the notes. When the notes are held up to the light, parts of the fish fill in, as areas on the back of the note line up perfectly with the front.

Watermark

There is a watermark depicting Queen Elizabeth II on each of the notes. The mould-made watermark appears three-dimensional when the note is held up to the light.

Security Thread

The security thread has been upgraded. When the banknote is viewed from the front under reflected UV light, the letters ECCB and the denominational value of the note are clearly visible in yellow, against a blue background. A second security thread has also been added. This is a narrow, continuous black line, to the left of the Queen's portrait.

Source: Eastern carribean central bank, Wikipedia, Krause Publications.