The redesign drops the British monarch for ten regional icons. Two Vincentians will feature, and the decision that ended the crown’s reign over the currency was taken right here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Regional Affairs
Queen Elizabeth Removed From the EC Dollar as ECCB Unveils Notes Honouring Caribbean Heroes
The redesign drops the British monarch for ten regional icons. Two Vincentians will feature, and the decision that ended the crown’s reign over the currency was taken right here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
After decades of British royalty gazing out from the region’s cash, the Eastern Caribbean dollar is about to change its face. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has unveiled a redesigned family of banknotes that, for the first time, removes the image of the late Queen Elizabeth II in favour of national heroes and nation builders drawn from across the eight member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
ECCB Governor Timothy N.J. Antoine revealed the new designs on Thursday in Dominica, during the ceremony marking the change of chairmanship of the bank’s Monetary Council. He described the series as a tribute to the people, heritage and achievements of the region, and as a historic milestone in the evolution of the EC dollar. Where a monarch once stood, the notes will now carry the faces of ten distinguished sons and daughters of the Caribbean.
For the first time since colonial coinage, the money in a Vincentian’s pocket will carry no crown.
A decision made on Vincentian soil
For St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this is more than a regional headline. The historic move to strike the monarch from the currency was formally approved at the 105th Meeting of the ECCB Monetary Council, held in Kingstown on 21 July 2023. It was on Vincentian soil that regional finance leaders agreed the Queen’s image would go, subject to public consultation. Those consultations, held between July and December 2023, returned strong support for placing Caribbean heroes on the money instead.
Two Vincentians will now take their place on the new notes. The Right Honourable Robert Milton Cato, this nation’s first Premier and first Prime Minister, appears on the EC$5. Sir K. Dwight Venner, the Vincentian who served as Governor of the ECCB from 1989 to 2015 and steered the currency through decades of stability, features on the EC$50. For a small nation, seeing two of its own on the region’s legal tender is a point of considerable pride.
Who will appear on the new notes
Each denomination carries dual portraits, one from two different member states, so that all eight territories of the currency union are represented across the series.
The redesigned EC banknotes
- EC$100 Sir William Arthur Lewis and Sir John George Melvin Compton (Saint Lucia)
- EC$50 Sir K. Dwight Venner (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw (St. Kitts and Nevis)
- EC$20 Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Snr (Antigua and Barbuda) and Dame Mary Eugenia Charles (Dominica)
- EC$10 William Henry Bramble (Montserrat) and James Ronald Webster (Anguilla)
- EC$5 Robert Milton Cato (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) and Sir Kirani James (Grenada)
The names read like a roll call of the region’s political, intellectual and sporting greatness, from Saint Lucia’s Nobel laureate economist Sir Arthur Lewis to Grenada’s Olympic 400m champion Sir Kirani James, the youngest figure among them.
When the new money arrives
Vincentians will not be exchanging their notes overnight. The ECCB has signalled a phased rollout expected to begin in 2027, starting with the EC$100 and moving through the other denominations as existing stocks of the current notes are used up. Governor Antoine has said the first of the redesigned notes will in all likelihood be revealed and made available that year. Both the current and the new notes will remain legal tender during the transition, so there is no cause for alarm at the shop counter.
The long goodbye to the crown
British monarchs have looked out from money in this part of the world for the better part of a century. The Queen’s portrait appeared on notes issued by the British Caribbean Currency Board from 1950, then by the East Caribbean Currency Authority from 1965, and finally on the first ECCB notes issued in November 1984. Even after Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, her image remained, since the notes were never updated to King Charles III.
The redesign settles that question permanently. It also fits a wider Caribbean current, one in which the region has grown increasingly comfortable stating its own identity in its own terms, from debates over reparations and republicanism to the celebration of home-grown excellence. Placing Cato, Venner, Bradshaw, Compton, Charles and the rest on the currency is a quiet but unmistakable act of ownership. The money will now tell the region’s story back to itself.
For St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a nation that hosted the decision and earned two places on the notes, the message is clear enough. The faces in our wallets are becoming our own.
Filed under: Regional Affairs, Caribbean Affairs. Tags: Eastern Caribbean dollar, ECCB, Queen Elizabeth II, Robert Milton Cato, Sir Dwight Venner, OECS, ECCU.