1 Cent - Elizabeth II Light Version

Barbados switched from bronze to copper-plated zinc for its cent coinage in the late 1980s, following the same cost-driven transition made by the United States in 1982 and subsequently adopted by numerous Commonwealth mints facing rising copper prices. The planchet change is the sole distinction separating this type from its KM#10 predecessor — same dies, different core.

Long-running issues across two decades mean examples from the early years occasionally show zinc rot beneath damaged copper plating, a known degradation problem with this composition in humid Caribbean climates.