A notable display
During my tour of the new Exhibit, it was not completely finished, although it is currently open to the public after last Thursday’s grand opening of BMA House.
Marcia Woolridge-Allwood, director of Corporate and Financial Services, said that they were very, very proud of the Note and Coin Exhibit.
“It outlines the story of how the notes are made,” she said.
“It also highlights our move to the decimal system in 1970, going from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars. The exhibit also includes the notes that were initially issued by Government.”
Ms Woolridge-Allwood explained that after 1970 the Bermuda Monetary Authority was given responsibility for issuing currency.
“The exhibit also includes the old Sterling currency, the two pence, (pronounced tuppence) and a shilling.”
Referring to some of the replicas that are on show within the new Exhibit, she said: “We also have replicas of the Hogge Money, which was the original money in Bermuda.
“I say replicas, but we do have the originals, and clearly these are extremely precious, therefore, they are not included in the exhibit. “There is also the Ship’s Penny, which is a piece of coinage that was used in the islands.”
She said that the BMA was hoping that this display would give the public and visitors to the Exhibit a sense of the history of the original coinage and general currency in Bermuda.
“We feature the Bermuda Dollar, one pound notes, five shilling notes, ten shilling notes and one shilling notes.
“We also have a set of scales, which were used for measuring metal content. Once the metal content was correctly identified then items could be bartered and traded fairly. Since the Authority took over, the money has been through several evolutions, one being the change of the paper dollar.
“We then moved to the new one dollar coin, which was very much like the UK one pound coin,” “ We use the Royal Mint and of course they do too.”
In the case of the notes, the Bank of England issues their notes, or at least they did.
“Thomas De La Rue Plc issues our notes and they are located in Basingstoke (UK), but they have factories around the world and it is probably the largest private security printer in the world.
“We had the one dollar note, which we phased out, and we have an example of the printing plate used to produce Bermuda notes. This particular exhibit was a present that was given to us by Thomas De La Rue to commemorate our 25th Anniversary.
The Authority also has a very successful Numismatic programme.
“We were successful in 1996 and won the Coin of the Year of the World Award and that was for our Triangle Coin, which was issued in 1996,” she said.
“It is in silver and in gold and it is also in our door handle leading into the Exhibit.
“It was the first three-lobe-sided (not an exact triangle) coin ever issued in the world.
“These coins are, as I said, representative of Bermuda, but they also make excellent jewellery or if there are people here on holiday who aren’t able to figure out what they want to take back to family and friends - they are excellent mementos.
“In 2005 we issued a five-sided coin to commemorate Bermuda’s Quincentennial and that is also a very popular and unique coin.
“Again we decided to produce it in bi-metals, and it is silver with a gold inlay, and it has also been entered for the 2005 Coin of the Year of the World Award to be presented at the 2007 American Numismatic Association World’s Money Fair in Milwaukee - we don’t know, but we hope to win.”
Some of the other coins on offer or to view are the 12-point series of coins, which represent shipwrecks that you would see around the waters of Bermuda.
“Six were issued with a 2006 date and six will be issued with a 2007 date,” she said.
“At the moment we have issued them in bi-metal form and the cost to the customer is $85.”
In the past said Ms Woolridge-Allwood, the coins have been a true representation of what we have become accustomed to on and around the Island.
“These are the coins that we have issued.... and they feature local flora and fauna, the tree frog, the heron and the blue bird,” she explained.
“There is one with longtails, which was a very popular coin, and is actually a shot of two longtails mating.
“We also have sea shells, sea horses, and a Bermuda cedar tree - all things that are very unique to Bermuda.”
Getting a little away from Bermuda’s natural history, she noted that they also had coins that commemorated the anniversary of Bermuda’s Parliament.
“We can’t do everything,” she said, “But we always do coins of historical significance. So we have the turtles, a clearly endangered species, and of course the (Her Majesty the) Queen’s wedding.”
On the plans for the Numismatic Team being involved in an educational outreach programme, she said: “This will help to educate children on the notes and coins of the country.
“It is also a way that they can help their parents to stop saving up all of those coins in bottles, because it is very expensive, so bring them back in and let them circulate.
“We try little by little to get a penny drive going. It is an opportunity for people to have pride in the currency and consider it.
“In this new building it will allow them to come into this facility. We can also take the opportunity to present them with a slide show in our new training room to encourage their interests, not only in the history from our perspective, but also in becoming a collector one day.”
