BIT: COIN OF DANISH WEST INDIES
5 bit (1 cent), 1905: Danish West Indies
Danish West Indies — Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix. The islands have belonged to the United States as the Virgin Islands since they were purchased in 1917.
Ruler: Christian IX — King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906; concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg (1863-1864).
1 CENT - 5 BIT: double denomination coin.
Trident, caduceus and sickle (perhaps these symbols, which were also present on the Danish West Indian daler banknotes, indicate the direct involvement of these island lands in maritime trade and agriculture as the most important areas of the local economy).
G.I.: symbols of Gunnar Jensen — Danish engraver, medallist and sculptor; he served as chief medallist for the Royal Danish Mint from 1901 to 1933.
DANSK VESTINDIEN: Danish West Indies.
Crowned monogram of King Christian IX (double, mirrored, C9).
❤ - 1905 - P: heart as sign of Royal Danish Mint (Copenhagen, Denmark) - 1905 - engraver Vilhelm Burchard Poulsen.
Mintage: 500.000.
- Bronze: 23 mm - 3.96 g
- Reference price: 27$
COIN BIT — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- DANISH WEST INDIES (1905-1913): bit = 1/5 cent = 1/100 franc = 1/500 daler
- CARIBBEAN ISLANDS (Barbados, Martinique, Grenada, Trinidad, Tortola...): bit /as part of big silver colonial coins/
BIT as coin name.
The English term "bit" is widespread and is often used to denote a little part of something. Usually indicates a bitten or broken off small insignificant particle, a piece.
In the modern world, it is also the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. But in this case this name is a portmanteau of "BInary digiT" (BIT).
Moreover, absolutely everyone is now familiar with the name of the main cryptocurrency — bitcoin, although it is not actually a coin in the classical sense, nor one of the examples of the "bit" denomination.
In numismatics, bit is a proper name, the name of a coin. Rather... a series of dissimilar coins. Personally, I would distinguish two types, each of which is unique only to the Caribbean.
The first, very conventional, type: this is what was called in the 18-19 centuries on the Caribbean islands (Barbados, Martinique, Grenada, Trinidad, Tortola) pieces, usually 1/8 part, of Spanish dollar — the first world currency widely used in Europe, the Americas, and the Far East.
The second type of bit coins — the exchange coin of Danish West Indian's daler, an example of which is shown on this page. On the coins of this series, minted in 1905 and 1913, for the first time and for the last time, this rare denomination was indicated, but in a double format: ½ Cent / 2½ Bit, 1 Cent / 5 Bit, 2 Cents / 10 Bit, 5 Cents / 25 Bit and 10 Cents / 50 Bit. That is, 1 daler = 100 cents = 500 bits.
Bit as the name of coin is trivially a term that means small piece. It is precisely the first aforementioned type that is a pronounced example of such coins (it is fair to clarify: coin fragments or countermarked coins). While this name itself (BIT) is present only on coins of the second type.
By the way, the etymology of the numismatic term "bit" is essentially similar to the name of the russian ruble (a part, offcut of the ancient monetary unit of Kyivan Rus' — the hryvnia).
