Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Bit
| Issuer | Barbados |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Half circle |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The right half of the quartered cross design typical of Spanish colonial coinage, displaying a castle (Castile) in one quarter and a lion (León) in the adjacent quarter, separated by a bold cross. The partial peripheral legend reads HISPANI, being a fragment of HISPANIARUM, the standard Spanish royal inscription. A floral rosette ornament is visible at the top of the curved edge, and the denomination numeral 3 (or partial '2') appears at the upper left near the straight cut. The milled edge is clearly visible along the curved circumference. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The "bit" denomination has West Indian roots stretching back to the Spanish colonial period, when fractional Spanish silver — particularly the one-real piece — circulated so widely across the Caribbean that local economies priced goods in "bits" long after Spanish coinage ceased to dominate. Barbados adopted the term formally, though the island's own silver coinage was always a minor supplement to a monetary system that ran largely on foreign coin and, later, British sterling.
The .903 fineness matches the old Spanish colonial standard, almost certainly not by accident.