For nearly four hundred years Spanish dollars, known as "pieces of eight" were in widespread use on the world's trading routes, including the Caribbean region.

[1] However, following the revolutionary wars in Latin America, the source of these silver trade coins dried up.

[2] An imperial Order in Council was passed in that year for the purposes of facilitating this aim by making sterling coinage legal tender in the colonies at the specified rate of 1 Spanish dollar to 4 shillings, 4 pence sterling.

It wasn't however until 1 January 1842 that the authorities in Bermuda formally decided to make sterling the official currency of the colony to circulate concurrently with Doubloons (64 shillings) at the rate of $1 = 4s 2d.

Contrary to expectations, and unlike in the Bahamas where US dollars circulated concurrently with sterling, the Bermudans did not allow themselves to be drawn into the U. S. currency area.

The nascent Bermudian dollars circulated in conjunction with the new British decimal coinage a year before it was introduced in the United Kingdom.

Prior to decimalisation and conversion to the dollar, the Government of Bermuda did not issue its own coins, other than the commemorative Bermudian crowns, since the 19th Century at the latest.

Bermuda has occasionally released commemorative coins to celebrate certain events, historical milestones, flora, and fauna.

Notable among these are the so-called "Bermuda triangles", which are pressed on special lobed triangular planchets, are minted in gold and silver, and come in denominations divisible by three.

[21] The new designs were described as "distinctly Bermudian",[22] with Queen Elizabeth II being relegated to a minor position,[23] using a royal effigy by Machin.

[26] The 2009-series $50 banknote was modified in August 2012 to depict the correct species of longtail native to Bermuda.