10 Centimes – French Guiana

In 1818, French Guiana existed in a complex and transitional monetary landscape, still grappling with the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and the recent restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. As an integral French colony, its official currency was the French franc, governed by the Franc Germinal law of 1803, which established a bimetallic system based on gold and silver. However, the physical supply of standardized French coinage in the colony was often scarce, leading to a chronic shortage of specie that hampered daily commerce and government operations.

This scarcity meant that a variety of foreign coins, particularly Spanish-American silver pesos (pieces of eight) and Portuguese réis, circulated widely alongside official French coins. These foreign currencies were valued by their weight and fineness of precious metal, rather than their face value, and their exchange rates fluctuated. The local economy also relied heavily on credit instruments, barter for goods like sugar and coffee, and even commodity money such as cacao beans in more remote areas. This created a fragmented and somewhat chaotic monetary environment where multiple systems operated concurrently.

Administratively, the colonial government in Cayenne struggled to impose the metropolitan monetary standard. While accounts were kept in francs and centimes, the practical reality was a de facto multi-currency system. The year 1818 fell within a period of stabilization for France, but the distant colony of French Guiana, with its plantation-based economy and small population, remained a low priority for the shipment of sufficient coinage. This situation would persist for decades, leaving the colony's currency situation characterized by official French policy on one hand, and a pragmatic reliance on whatever tangible value was available for exchange on the other.