1/4 Guilder - George III

Demerara and Essequibo were Dutch colonies seized by Britain in 1803, and by 1809 the colonial administration faced a chronic shortage of small change — a problem endemic to Caribbean possessions of every European power throughout this period. Rather than wait on shipments from London, local authorities issued this quarter guilder to satisfy immediate transactional demand, retaining the guilder denomination rather than converting to sterling, a concession to the Dutch-speaking merchant class still dominating the plantation economy.

The colony was formally ceded to Britain at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, after which this coinage became obsolete within a generation.