World coins chat: Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad & Tobago is a republic in the south east Caribbean, close to the Venezuelan coast. It was a Spanish colony from the early 1500's until the British captured it in 1797. In 1962 it became independent, becoming a republic in 1976.

Trinidad used Spanish colonial Reals and after the British took over Sterling was introduced gradually over the 19th century. The British West Indies Dollar was introduced in 1935 as an accounting currency at $4.80 to £1, but it was not until 1955 until that currency was used for small change. Trinidad was part of the West Indies Federation but seceded in 1962, after which it introduced its own TT$ at parity. Current exchange rate is TT$ 6.35 to US Dollars, which compares to EC$ 2.70 from which it broke away. The British Pound is now almost 10 TT$ from 4.80 TT$ at its introduction.

The first coin series runs from 1966 to 1973, with a separate 1972 series to commemorate 10 years of independece. The second series was introduced in 1974, with a change to the legend in Republic of T&T from 1976. Most of the T&T coins are pretty easy to find.

Quote: "jokinen"Current exchange rate is TT$ 6.35 to US Dollar

​Current rate, 6.5 years later, is TT$ 6.76 to US Dollar ... pretty stable!

Tobago was actually Latvian for a while.

Quote: "Moneytane"​Tobago was actually Latvian for a while.

​That inspired me to do some reading. Tobago was indeed part of the Duchy of Courland, a fief of Poland-Lithuania that had a population of Baltic Germans and Latvians.

To state that Tobago was Latvian is somewhat inaccuate though. It looks like the ones that were actively involved used very German names.

Quote: "swimmingly, Posted: 23-Dec-2019, 06:12PM"​

Quote: "jokinen, Posted: 23-May-2015, 08:52AM"Current exchange rate is TT$ 6.35 to US Dollar

​​Current rate, 6.5 years later, is TT$ 6.76 to US Dollar ... pretty stable!

​I really don't understand this math.

D'oh! ... I confused his "join" date with the "posted" date :(

Quote: "swimmingly"​D'oh! ... I confused his "join" date with the "posted" date :(

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