ECCB unveils redesigned EC banknotes honoring regional heroes

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has unveiled new EC banknote designs that replace Queen Elizabeth II with regional figures and symbols across the eight-member Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. The redesign, announced in Dominica on July 9, puts national heroes, the ECCB logo and ECCU flags at the center of the currency.

Why it matters: - The new EC banknotes shift the region’s currency away from colonial imagery and toward figures tied to the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s own history and identity. - The redesign puts national heroes, regional leaders and the ECCU logo in everyday circulation across eight member countries. - The change is also part of a broader update to coins, which will replace Queen Elizabeth II with the ECCU logo.

What happened: - Governor Timothy N.J. Antoine and members of the ECCB Monetary Council unveiled the new banknote designs on Thursday, July 9, during the ceremony marking the change in chairmanship of the Monetary Council in Dominica. - The banknotes no longer feature the likeness of the late Queen Elizabeth II. - The redesign follows a public consultation process that asked Eastern Caribbean citizens to help shape the new currency.

The details: - The $100 note features Sir William Arthur Lewis, who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Economics, and The Right Honourable Sir John George Melvin Compton of Saint Lucia. - The $50 note features former ECCB Governor The Honourable Sir K. Dwight Venner and The Right Excellent Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw of Saint Christopher and Nevis. - The $20 note features The Right Honourable Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Snr of Antigua and Barbuda and The Honourable Dame Mary Eugenia Charles of Dominica. - The $10 note features The Most Excellent William Henry Bramble of Montserrat and The Honourable James Ronald Webster of Anguilla. - The $5 note features The Right Honourable Robert Milton Cato of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Sir Kirani James, LLD (Hons), of Grenada. - For the first time, the banknote series includes the ECCB logo encircled by the flags of the ECCU. - Sir K. Dwight Venner now appears on the front of the $50 note instead of the back. - Sir William Arthur Lewis has moved from the back of the $100 note to the front.

Between the lines: - The design change reflects a deliberate effort to use currency as a visible expression of regional pride and shared political identity. - The public response cited by Antoine suggests the Monetary Council wanted the redesign to feel locally owned rather than imposed from above. - The use of paired portraits across denominations underscores a balance between honoring individual achievers and representing multiple member states.

What's next: - ECCB will move ahead with circulation of the redesigned banknotes. - The coins will be redesigned next, with Queen Elizabeth II’s likeness replaced by the ECCU logo. - The new currency series is likely to become a recurring visual marker of the ECCU’s regional brand across daily transactions.

The bottom line: - The ECCB is recasting EC currency as a tribute to the region’s own leaders, scholars and nation builders.