| Description | The dollar has been the currency of Jamaica since 1969. It is often abbreviated "J$", the J serving to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents.
The history of currency in Jamaica should not be considered in isolation of the wider picture in the British West Indies as a whole. See British West Indies dollar. The peculiar feature about Jamaica was the fact that it was the only British West Indies territory to use special issues of the sterling coinage, apart from the four-pence groat coin which was specially issued for all the British West Indies, and later only for British Guiana.
In October 1960, the Bank of Jamaica was given the sole right to mint coins and produce banknotes in Jamaica. Their notes were released on May 1, 1961, in the denominations of 5s, 10s, £1, and £5.
On January 30, 1968, the Jamaican House of Representatives voted to decimalise the currency by introducing the dollar, worth 10 shillings, to replace the Jamaican pound. Coins and banknotes went into circulation on September 8, 1969. The introduction of a decimal currency provided the opportunity for the introduction of a complete Jamaican coinage as formerly, the coins (with the exception of the penny and halfpenny), were the same as those used in the United Kingdom. The reverse of the decimal coinage was designed by Christopher Ironside, O.B.E.. These coins were in circulation from 1969 to about 1990. |
|---|
