| Description | Tristan da Cunha, colloquially simply Tristan, is a British Overseas Territory comprising a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 2,787 km off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 2,437 km from Saint Helena and 4,002 km off the coast of the Falkland Islands. The territory consists of the inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres and an area of 98 square kilometres; the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island; and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands. As of October 2018, the main island has 250 permanent inhabitants, who all carry British Overseas Territories citizenship. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the South African personnel of a weather station on Gough Island.
Being so small, Tristan da Cunha does not have any banking to speak of, and uses the British Pound Sterling as its circulation currency. However, a number of mints issue non-circulating commemorative and collector coins in its jurisdiction. The coins are denominated in pounds and pence (the earlier commemorative crowns being 25 pence like their British counterparts) but these are not British pounds and pence as they are not legal tender in the United Kingdom. so, while a "Tristan da Cunha Pound" does not officially exist as a separate or subsidiary currency, these coins have to be classified as issued in Tristan da Cunha Pound...
The obverse depicts the head of state, which - as for all overseas territories - is the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen's role in the territories is in her role as Queen of the United Kingdom, and not in right of each territory separately. |
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