1/2 Cent / 2 1/2 Bit - Christian IX

The 2½-bit denomination was a Danish West Indian peculiarity — a fractional unit required to bridge the colonial bit system with Danish decimal coinage. Christian IX died in January 1906, making 1905 one of the last years his effigy appeared on colonial issues before the transition to Frederik VIII. Danish West India was sold to the United States in 1917 for $25 million, ending three centuries of Danish colonial currency in the Caribbean and rendering the entire bit coinage series obsolete overnight.