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Currency Oversight by Central Bank
Issue and Redemption of Currency
Damaged Currency
Know your Money
More on Trinidad and Tobago’s Bank Notes and Coins

Bank Notes & Coins

The Central Bank’s Role in Currency Issuance and Management

The Central Bank has the exclusive right to issue and redeem currency notes and coins in Trinidad and Tobago. In carrying out this function the Bank, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance, makes decisions on the denomination, the substrate and the characteristics of notes and coins.

There are six denominations of currency notes and four denomination of coins in circulation. The four denominations of coins are the 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents and 50 cents, and the six denominations of banknotes are $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. In addition, the Bank has issued limited amounts of one dollar coins to mark special events such as the United Nations “Food For All” campaign in 1979.

The Bank has also issued commemorative coins in celebration of special events and occasions of national significance. These have been issued either as individual units or as part of a suite of coins.

The Bank issues notes and coins to the commercial banks which supply the public’s requirements. The commercial banks redeem banknotes surplus to their needs back to the Central Bank. In so doing, the banknotes are withdrawn from circulation. The Bank processes redeemed notes and destroys unfit notes using a sophisticated and environmentally friendly banknote destruction process.

Issue and Redemption of Currency

The Central Bank is the only institution in the country which is authorized to issue and redeem currency notes and coins. This involves:

Design of the currency

The Bank, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance, takes decisions on the denomination, the substrate and the characteristics of notes and coins. The Bank engages the services of reputable printers and minters to produce these notes and coins.

Maintenance of the currency’s integrity

Security features are key to preserving the integrity of the country’s currency notes. Some of the security features used include holograms, security threads, watermarks and micro printing.

Ensuring sufficient currency supply

In order to maintain a sufficient supply of notes and coins to meet the public’s demands, the Bank undertakes regular stock assessments and projections of currency needs.

Damaged Currency

A banknote or coin that has become mutilated or impaired can be redeemed under certain conditions. According to the Central Bank Act Chapter 79:02, “the Bank may in its absolute discretion as an act of grace refund the value of a mutilated or impaired note or a coin which has been tampered with.” The Bank would accept from the public mutilated or impaired TT notes and exchange such notes for new or fit notes subject to the following conditions:

  • Mutilated or impaired notes, whether in one piece or in several pieces, may be redeemed at the full-face value of the notes if the fragments or pieces represent an area in excess of fifty per cent of the total area of a currency note.
  • No value should be ascribed to a mutilated or impaired note and no mutilated or impaired note should be redeemed for any value if the area of the note or pieces presented represent fifty per cent or less of the total area of the note.
  • No value should be ascribed to any note which appears to be deliberately mutilated or impaired.
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