20 Dollars Mermaids, Obverse Trial

Anguilla's 1969–1970 coinage emerged from one of the more unusual episodes in Caribbean political history: the island's unilateral secession from the associated state of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, declared in 1967 after Anguillans expelled the St. Kitts police force and held their own independence referendum. Britain, reluctant to recognize the breakaway, nonetheless negotiated an uneasy arrangement — and the issuance of local coinage was part of Anguilla's effort to assert administrative independence. This obverse trial represents the experimental phase of that project, a monetary gesture from a microstate that technically did not yet exist in any recognized form.