Bahamas Coins
The Bahamas put a starfish on its very first coin in 1966 and never took it off. From the colonial issues carrying Elizabeth II's portrait through the post-independence coins bearing the national coat of arms, the red cushion sea star has appeared on every one-cent piece the islands have produced — a single marine creature connecting the entire numismatic history of an archipelago nation spread across seven hundred islands and two thousand cays.
The Bahamian dollar was introduced alongside the country's first coins in 1966, pegged one-to-one with the US dollar, and the designs drew on the natural world of the islands: starfish, bonefish, flamingos, blue marlin, sloops under sail, and pineapples. The coins have been struck at the Royal Mint, the Franklin Mint, and the Royal Canadian Mint across compositions ranging from nickel brass to copper-nickel to modern plated steel. After independence on July 10, 1973, the queen's portrait gave way to the national coat of arms — a blue marlin and a flamingo supporting a shield beneath the motto FORWARD UPWARD ONWARD TOGETHER.
Some denominations have since been withdrawn. The one-cent coin was demonetized on December 31, 2020, ending fifty-four years of the starfish on active Bahamian currency. The coins that survive from every era — colonial, post-independence, and modern — carry the marine life and island identity of a country that defined itself by its relationship to the sea from the first day it minted its own money.
