100 Dollars Sailing Ships

This note belongs to the short-lived series of legal tender "art notes" issued by several Eastern Caribbean microstates in the early 1980s — a period when Antigua and Barbuda, having gained independence in November 1981, was actively asserting its separate identity through commemorative instruments. The pieces were produced as collectibles from the outset, never intended to pass through any till, and were marketed primarily to numismatists in North America and Europe.

The silver-and-gold-foil construction places it firmly outside conventional banknote manufacture — no central bank printing works handled these. Alan D'Estrehan's credit as designer is one of the few documented facts about the production side of the series.