5 Shillings – British colonies

In 1813, the currency situation across Britain's global colonies was characterized by chronic scarcity and a complex patchwork of local solutions. The core problem was a persistent shortage of official British coinage, as the mother country prohibited the export of sterling silver and gold coin to prevent its own domestic shortage. This left colonial economies, which were heavily geared toward exporting raw materials and importing manufactured goods, with a severe deficit of reliable, universally accepted money for daily transactions and internal trade. The result was a monetary landscape where a variety of substitutes—foreign coins, paper bills, and even commodity money—circulated with varying degrees of acceptance and stability.

The specific realities differed by region. In the Caribbean sugar colonies, the dominant currency was often the Spanish silver dollar (piece of eight), valued by its weight and fineness, alongside locally issued plantation tokens and promissory notes. In Canada and the maritime provinces, a mixture of Spanish dollars, British Army bills (issued to pay troops during the War of 1812), and notes from fledgling banks filled the void. Meanwhile, in the penal colony of New South Wales, the economy relied heavily on rum as a de facto currency and on promissory notes drawn on the British Treasury, known as "Sterling Bills," due to an almost complete absence of coin.

This fragmented system created significant challenges. Exchange rates between different forms of money were fluctuating and localized, hindering inter-colonial trade. The reliance on paper notes and bills of credit also carried the constant risk of depreciation or default, especially when issued by private entities or colonial governments with shaky finances. Ultimately, the currency situation of 1813 highlighted a fundamental tension: the colonies were integrated into the British imperial economic system but were left to manage their day-to-day exchange with inadequate and improvised monetary tools, a reality that would spur moves toward more formalized banking and currency reforms in the decades to come.