The Barbadian Dollar has been the currency of Barbados since 1973, when it replaced the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively BBD $ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies.
Apart from the regular circulating coinage, the country has also authorised some foreign mints to issue commemorative and bullion coins under its jurisdiction. Some of these are in the half gram of gold mini-coin format.
This coin commemorates the 175th anniversary of the start of the Gold Rush which attracted a great number of migrants to the state.
The California Gold Rush, as it came to be called, began on 24 January 1848, when James Marshall, a millwright at Sutter’s Mill discovered gold along the banks of the American River. Located approximately 135 miles northeast of San Francisco in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, the area around Sutter’s Mill had only recently become part of the United States after American troops conquered California in 1846 during the early stages of the Mexican-American War of 1846 - 1848. In fact, California didn’t even become a state until 1850. The question of statehood was never in doubt, however, as the discovery of gold there sparked the greatest gold rush of all time. By 1849, hopeful prospectors known as 49ers, were heading westward to try their luck in the hills of California.
Sandwiched between the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the Civil War that began in 1861, the California Gold Rush played a significant role in American history, spurring as it did hundreds of thousands of people to rush West in search of riches. Many lucky prospectors made their fortune by finding thousands upon thousands of dollars in gold. Others made their fortune selling goods and services to the eager prospectors. All told, the California Gold saw the migration of around 300,000 people of all different cultures and backgrounds to the region, altering it forever. |
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The obverse of the coin displays at its centre the Coat of Arms of Barbados: a shield which carries two Pride of Barbados flowers (the National Flower) and a Bearded Fig Tree (ficus Citrifolia). On either side of the shield are the supporters - on the right is a dolphin symbolic of the fishing industry, and on the left a pelican, after Pelican Island, a small outcrop later incorporated into the Deep Water Harbour development. Above the shield is a helmet, above which the hand of a Bajan holding two crossed pieces of sugar cane symbolic of the sugar industry. On a ribbon below, the motto PRIDE AND INDUSTRY.
Around above, the name of the country: BARBADOS.
Around below, the face value 10 DOLLARS. Divided by that, to the left and right of it, the precious metal content: 0.5 g Au 999.9 (half gram of 99.99% gold). |
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