1 Stiver

British Guiana's earliest copper coinage was a stopgap measure following the end of slavery in 1834 and the subsequent disruption to plantation-based exchange systems. The colonial administration authorized these token issues to address a chronic shortage of small change, as Spanish and Dutch colonial coins that had circulated under previous administrations were being withdrawn. The 1838 date places this piece in the final year of the "apprenticeship" period — the transitional labor arrangement that formally ended on August 1, 1838, when full emancipation took effect across British Caribbean territories.