World coins chat: Guadeloupe, Martinique and Windward Islands

Guadeloupe was discovered by Christopher Columbus who named the island Santa Maria de Guadelupe de Extremadura, but the Spanish never settled there. But it was the place where Columbus discovered the pineapple, which was unknown in the old world.

The French settled in 1635 and French currency was used since. Briefly occupied by the British during the Napoleon wars, the French retook control in 1816 and a separate Guadeloupe Franc was introduced with banknotes only. In 1903 and 1921, 50 centimes and 1 franc coins were introduced, which are the only coins from this place and pretty hard to find. The 1921 coin could be classified as emergency currency, comparable to the local coins in Metropolitan France after the collapse of the gold Franc in 1920.

Since 2002 Guadeloupe is using euro.

Martinique has a similar history to that of Guadeloupe, and the only coins issued are the 50 centimes & 1 Franc coins in 1897 and 1922. And also these are pretty hard to find.

Some other coins were shared with other colonies (French colonies section)

As you said, the 1921 may be considered as French notgelds, but they are exactly the same as former ones.

Just notice that, by the same way USA did with Puerto Rico, both Overseas French regions were honoured by 3 silver €10 coins, from the French region series, from 2010 to 2012. Photos are taken from Numista catalog, I don't own all of them.

1st series: region flags
  
2nd series: region monuments
  
3rd series: region famous people
  

Notice also that initially Guadeloupe included some territories which are now split from the region of Guadeloupe but switched to French overseas territories like is Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon: Saint-Barthélémy and Saint-Martin

Guadeloupe coinage: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/guadeloupe-1.html
Martinique coinage: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/martinique-1.html

Let's add Windward Islands to the topic. The exact definition of Windward Islands is a little uncertain. These islands are the Southern part of the Caribbean Islands. Some of them were colonized by France, for a few years for some ones. Martinique is the only remaining island which is, without any hesitation, part of these islands. Were also part of the French Windward Islands the islands of Saint Lucia, Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines, Grenada, and maybe Dominica (considered either Windward or Leeward Islands, like was Guadeloupe). According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, we can consider Dominica as part of these ones. We may consider if Guadeloupe, as its actual regional territory is the closer one from Dominica, was considered as part of this mintage or not. Anyway, these other territories were finally conquered by the British as part of the British Windward Islands, later part of the British West Indies.

All their coinage, silver-made only, was made under Louis XV rule with a H mintmark, as minted in La Rochelle, France (from where ships started to join French colonies)

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/windward-islands-1.html

I edited the title. Thanks for the contribution to this topic.

Quote: "jokinen"​Guadeloupe was discovered by Christopher Columbus who named the island Santa Maria de Guadelupe de Extremadura, but the Spanish never settled there. But it was the place where Columbus discovered the pineapple, which was unknown in the old world.
​
​The French settled in 1635 and French currency was used since. Briefly occupied by the British during the Napoleon wars, the French retook control in 1816 and a separate Guadeloupe Franc was introduced with banknotes only. In 1903 and 1921, 50 centimes and 1 franc coins were introduced, which are the only coins from this place and pretty hard to find. The 1921 coin could be classified as emergency currency, comparable to the local coins in Metropolitan France after the collapse of the gold Franc in 1920.
​
​Since 2002 Guadeloupe is using euro.

FYI ​Spanish is Guadalupe, so Columbus named it as "Santa Maria de Guadalupe de Extremadura"