100 Dollars Sailing Ships

Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from Britain on 1 November 1981, and this note was issued to mark that event — one of the earliest numismatic releases under the new government's own authority. Whether it ever functioned as genuine legal tender in any practical sense is a separate question; pieces like this were conceived for collectors from the outset.

Alan D'Estrehan was a Antiguan artist whose work appeared across several of the new nation's early commemorative issues. The .999 silver substrate backed with 23-karat gold foil is a production method associated with a handful of specialist manufacturers catering to the Caribbean commemorative market in the early 1980s — technically ambitious for the period, and deliberately showy.