ECCB unveils new EC banknotes featuring regional heroes

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has unveiled redesigned EC banknotes that replace Queen Elizabeth II with national heroes and regional icons from across the eight ECCU member countries. The new notes were revealed in Dominica and are meant to reflect the currency’s ownership, history and identity across the region.

Why it matters: - The redesign puts regional identity at the center of the Eastern Caribbean’s currency. - The new banknotes replace a long-standing royal image with figures chosen to reflect service, leadership, scholarship and excellence across the ECCU. - The change is meant to reinforce that the currency belongs to the people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.

What happened: - Governor Timothy N.J. Antoine and members of the Monetary Council unveiled the new EC banknote designs on Thursday, 9 July, in Dominica. - The announcement came during the Ceremony to Mark the Change in Chairmanship of the ECCB Monetary Council. - The banknotes no longer feature the likeness of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The details: - The $100 banknote now features Sir William Arthur Lewis, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979, and The Right Honourable Sir John George Melvin Compton of Saint Lucia. - The $50 banknote features former ECCB Governor The Honourable Sir K. Dwight Venner, who served from 1989 to 2015, and The Right Excellent Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw of Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis. - The $20 banknote features The Right Honourable Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Snr of Antigua and Barbuda and The Honourable Dame Mary Eugenia Charles of the Commonwealth of Dominica. - The $10 banknote features The Most Excellent William Henry Bramble of Montserrat and The Honourable James Ronald Webster of Anguilla. - The $5 banknote features The Right Honourable Robert Milton Cato of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Sir Kirani James, LLD (Hons), of Grenada. - The new banknote series includes the ECCB logo encircled by the flags of the ECCU for the first time. - Sir K. Dwight Venner now appears on the front of the $50 note instead of the back. - Sir William Arthur Lewis has moved from the back of the $100 note to the front. - The redesign for EC coins would replace Queen Elizabeth II on the front with the ECCU logo.

Between the lines: - The selection of figures from each member country signals an effort to make the currency feel more locally representative. - Moving the featured portraits to the front of some notes gives the heroes more prominence in the series. - The coin redesign extends the same regional branding to smaller denominations.

What’s next: - The ECCB will move toward putting the redesigned banknotes and coins into circulation. - The new currency imagery will become a visible marker of the ECCU’s shared identity across member states.

The bottom line: - The ECCB is turning EC currency into a regional tribute, swapping colonial-era symbolism for homegrown figures and shared institutional branding.