Communication – and Beautiful Design – Key to Overcoming Scepticism in the Caribbean

This March, the Caribbean guilder – the new currency for the people of the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten – went into circulation, a good 15 years after the issuer of its predecessor – the Netherlands Antillean guilder – ceased to exist. A number of factors meant that, ultimately, the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) was left with little choice but to introduce a new currency. But its introduction was not without its challenges – not least because the people of the two islands were largely indifferent.

Such indifference was overcome by the creation of a series of beautiful new notes and coins, inspired by ‘the world under the sea’ that evoke the splendours of the islands’ shared marine life. These designs, in combination with an imaginative and carefully orchestrated public communications campaign supported by the CBCS’s production partners (Crane Currency for the banknotes, Royal Canadian Mint for the coins), turned scepticism into curiosity, then fascination, and finally national pride.