Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about 1,600 km from the coast of Africa and 2,300 km from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 1,300 km to the southeast.
Organised settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon on Saint Helena. In 1899, as part of the British effort in the Second Boer War, the Eastern Telegraph Company (later Cable & Wireless plc) installed the first submarine communications cable from the island, connecting the UK with its colonies in South Africa. In 1922, letters patent made Ascension a dependency of Saint Helena, with control being officially handed over to the Eastern Telegraph Company from the Admiralty on 20 October 1922. The island was managed by the head of the Eastern Telegraph Company on the island until 1964 when the British Government appointed an Administrator to represent the Governor of Saint Helena in Ascension. The 2009 Constitution order ended Ascension's status as a dependency of St Helena and provided for one Governor of the combined Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
Executive authority is vested in the monarch of the United Kingdom who is represented by the Governor of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The Governor resides in Jamestown, Saint Helena, and an Administrator is appointed to represent the Governor on Ascension Island.
Officially, the currency of the island is the Saint Helena Pound, which is a local variation of the Pound Sterling (which also circulates on the island). However, since 1978 the government has authorised some mints to issue non-circulating coins in the name of Ascension Island; these are denominated as "pounds", which is presumably a variety of the Saint Helena Pound or the Pound Sterling, since an Ascension Island Pound does not formally exist. The obverse of the coin depicts the monarch of the United Kingdom. |
