2 Pence – Bermuda

In 1616, Bermuda was a fledgling English colony, just seven years after the 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture and its subsequent settlement in 1612. There was no formal, standardized currency system on the islands. The economy operated on a rudimentary barter system, where essential goods and services—such as tobacco, food staples, livestock, and labor—were directly exchanged. This was supplemented by the use of "commodity money," with tobacco quickly emerging as the most important unit of value and account. The colony's governors even set official rates for tobacco against other goods, making it the de facto local currency for internal transactions.

However, Bermuda was part of a wider Atlantic trade network, and for external commerce, other forms of money were essential. Spanish silver coins, particularly pieces of eight (reales), circulated widely due to Spain's dominance in New World silver mining. These coins were a trusted, tangible form of hard currency accepted across the Caribbean and the Americas. English coins, like shillings and pence, were also present but were often in short supply, as they tended to flow back to England to pay for imported manufactured goods. The colony's economy was thus a dual system: a local tobacco-based economy and an international trade economy reliant on foreign coin.

This monetary environment was inherently unstable. The value of tobacco as currency fluctuated wildly based on crop yields, quality, and market prices in England, leading to inflation and economic uncertainty. Recognizing these problems, the Bermuda Company in London would soon attempt to regulate the economy by setting strict quality controls for "currency tobacco" and by trying to encourage the circulation of coin. Therefore, 1616 represents a formative year, capturing the colony's initial struggle to create a reliable medium of exchange from the resources at hand, a challenge that would define Bermuda's early economic development.