1 Stiver

British Guiana's 1838 stiver issues occupy an awkward transitional moment: the colony had just passed through the Apprenticeship period ending August 1, 1838, which itself followed emancipation under the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. A functioning local coinage was needed for wage payments to the newly free labor force on the sugar estates. The Dutch stiver denomination was retained deliberately — the colony's monetary habits were deeply rooted in its pre-British, VOC-era past, and planters and workers alike reckoned in the old unit.

The Lyall and Prid'eaux references treat this as a token issue, which is accurate; it was not struck on Crown authority but circulated with official tolerance.