Trinidad and Tobago dollar

The dollar (currency code TTD) is the currency of Trinidad and Tobago. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively TT$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is subdivided into 100 cents. Its predecessor currencies are the Trinidadian dollar and the Tobagan dollar.

History

The history of currency in the former British colony of Trinidad and Tobago closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight (Spanish dollars and later Mexican dollars) continued to form a major portion of the circulating currency right into the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Britain adopted the gold standard in 1821 and an imperial order-in-council of 1838 resulted in Trinidad and Tobago formally adopting the sterling currency. However, despite the circulation of British coins in Trinidad and Tobago, the silver pieces of eight continued to circulate alongside them. The international silver crisis of 1873 signalled the end of the silver dollar era in the West Indies and silver dollars were demonetized in Tobago in 1879 and in Trinidad at around the same period. This left a state of affairs, in which the British coinage circulated, being reckoned in the private sector using dollar accounts at an automatic conversion rate of 1 dollar = 4 shillings 2 pence. Government offices kept their accounts in British pounds, shillings, and pence until the year 1935 when Trinidad and Tobago went decimal.