ECCB unveils new family of banknotes honouring regional heroes to mark 50 years of the EC dollar peg

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) unveiled a redesigned family of banknotes Thursday evening in Dominica, replacing the image of the late British monarch Queen Elizabeth II with ten national icons across the currency union.

ECCB Governor Timothy N.J. Antoine said the individuals chosen on the new bank notes reflected “the highest ideas of service, leadership, scholarship and excellence.”

“The response was clear and compelling,” Governor Antoine said. “The people called for our currency to honour our own heroes, nation builders and persons whose lives and achievements have enriched our countries and strengthened our region.”

For the $5 note, St Vincent and the Grenadines will have its first prime minister, Robert Milton Cato, noting his role as one of the first signatories to the ECCB agreement.

Grenada’s selection for the same denomination is Olympic sprint champion Sir Kirani James, whose “discipline, humility and sporting excellence have brought distinction to Grenada.”

The $10 note will carry Montserrat’s first chief minister, William Henry Bramble, and Anguilla’s James Ronald Webster, who led the Anguilla Revolution and is revered as “the father of the nation.”

The $20 note will pair Antigua and Barbuda’s founding prime minister, VC Bird, a founding architect of the Caribbean Free Trade Association with Dominica’s and the Caribbean’s first female prime minister Mary Eugenia Charles, who was also the first woman to serve on the ECCB Monetary Council.

Sir K Dwight Venner, who served 26 years as ECCB governor, the longest tenure in the bank’s history, remains on the $50 note and will be joined by St Kitts and Nevis’ first national hero, Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw.

Sir Arthur Lewis, the Nobel laureate economist, will be on the $100 note, now paired with St Lucia’s first premier and prime minister, Sir John George Melvin Compton.

Rosbert Humphrey, the ECCB’s director of currency management, said that beyond the portrait changes, the space on the front of each note previously occupied by the monarch’s image has been filled with the bank’s logo encircled by the flags of the currency union’s member territories.

On the reverse, most background images remain, with modest adjustments: St Vincent’s Admiralty Bay scene on the $10 note has been replaced with Dark View Falls, Montserrat’s note now features the national bird and the Heliconia flower rather than Montserrat House, and the $50 note’s Brimstone Hill image on St Kitts has been extended to include a canyon.

“Coincidentally, this signifies resilience,” Humphrey said, noting the detail’s placement on the $50 note during the peg’s 50th anniversary.

Humphrey said the coins will retain their reverse ship design, with the obverse changing from the monarch to the same encircled-logo design used on the banknotes.

Humphrey said the new notes will co-circulate with existing currency rather than replace it outright, “so that everybody” can continue to identify legal tender by image during the transition.

He said the bank is still assessing whether a September or October 2026 launch window will hold or whether the rollout will move into 2027.