1 Cent – British Honduras

In 1937, the currency situation in British Honduras (modern-day Belize) was defined by its colonial dependency and the lingering effects of the Great Depression. The official currency was the British Honduras dollar, which was pegged at a fixed rate of 4 shillings 2 pence sterling. This peg, established in 1894, firmly tied the colony's monetary system to the British pound sterling, making its economy highly susceptible to decisions made in London and fluctuations in the United Kingdom's own financial health.

The local economy remained heavily reliant on forestry, particularly mahogany and chicle, and a struggling sugar industry. The Depression had severely depressed global demand for these exports, leading to widespread unemployment and a constricted money supply. While the currency peg provided a measure of stability, it also limited the government's ability to pursue independent monetary policy to stimulate the local economy. There was little to no local banking development; financial services were dominated by a few British commercial banks and the colonial government itself.

Notably, British Honduras was an outlier in the region, as most surrounding Central American republics and Mexico operated on a silver dollar standard or their own independent systems. Furthermore, despite the official sterling peg, U.S. dollars and Mexican pesos circulated freely and were widely accepted in border areas and for certain trades, reflecting the colony's practical economic connections with its neighbors. Thus, the currency situation in 1937 was one of formal colonial rigidity superimposed on a local reality of economic hardship and informal monetary pluralism.