The livre was the currency of Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...

 until 1814. The currency consisted of various cut Spanish and Spanish colonial coins. The livre was subdivided into 20 sous

French sol

The sol was a coin in use in Ancien Regime France, valued at a 20th of a livre tournois. The sol itself was subdivided into 12 deniers.Over the 17th century the term sol was, apart from in a few instances, progressively replaced by sou, reflecting its pronunciation. In 1787 a sol's buying power was...

, each of 12 deniers

French denier

The denier was a Frankish coin created by Charlemagne in the Early Middle Ages. It was introduced together with an accounting system in which twelve deniers equaled one sou and twenty sous equalled one livre...

. The escalin was worth 15 sous, with the stampee worth 3 sous 9 denier (¼ escalin). Until 1813, 12 escalins were equal to 8 reales

Spanish real

The real was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century, but changed in value relative to other units introduced...

 (the Spanish dollar

Spanish dollar

The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, of approximately 38 mm diameter, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler...

), after which 15 escalins equaled 8 reales. In 1851, sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

 was introduced for circulation.

Since the late 19th century, dollars have circulated on Saint Lucia, first the Saint Lucia dollar

Saint Lucia dollar

The history of currency in the British colony of Saint Lucia closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the...

, then the British West Indies dollar, and currently the East Caribbean dollar

East Caribbean dollar

The East Caribbean dollar is the currency of eight of the nine members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States...

.

Coins

In 1798, coins were issued for 2, 3, 4 and 6 escalins. These were made from sixths, quarters, thirds and halves of 8 reales coins, on to which the letters "SL" were counterstamped.

The 1811 issue consisted of 3 stampee, 1, 1½ and 2 escalins coins. The first two were made from quarters and thirds of 2 reales coins, whilst the higher two denominations were made from quarters and thirds of 4 reales coins. The 3 stampees was counterstamped with a crenelated circle, whilst the 1, 1½ and 2 escalins were counterstamped with one, two and three circles, respectively.

The final issue, from 1813, consisted of 3 and 9 escalins. These coins were produced by cutting 8 reales coins in to three parts, with the two outer parts, each consisting of one fifth of the coin, making the 3 escalins and the central part, consisting three-fifths, making the 9 escalins. They were all counterstamped with "S:Lucie".