Commems Collection Currency: Bahamas 50 Cents Notes

In 2021, here on CCF, I presented an e-exhibit of the $1.00 Notes from The Bahamas. (Note: I recently updated the exhibit with a Series 2024 note.) You can see the e-exhibit here: Commems Collection Currency: Bahamas $1 Notes. That exhibit was based on a physical exhibit that I displayed at several local and regional coin shows.

I stated in that thread that I was interested in the Fifty Cent Notes of The Bahamas, and that I might someday pursue a collection of them. Well, I decided to move ahead with such a collection, and herein present my Type collection in the same format that I used for my $1.00 Notes.

My plan is to post one type note per day.

And now, without further adieu...



Introduction

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The Bahamas has issued a circulating Fifty Cents Note periodically since 1966. The issues haven't been as numerous as other denominations, but the notes have been updated along the way to reflect the aging of Queen Elizabeth II as well as new banknote technologies.

As I stated in my Bahamas $1 Notes e-exhibit, I recognize that the notes presented aren't particularly rare or valuable, but I believe they make for an interesting collection because of their unusual denomination for paper money (vs. coins). The Bahamas is not the only nation to have issued 50-Cent notes - dozens of countries on every continent have issued a 50-Cent note at one time or another - but The Bahamas appears to be alone in continuing to issue new, updated "half unit" notes.

With the Queen's passing in 2022, and the move away from the Monarch's portrait on most of the other denominations of Bahamas Notes, it would seem The Bahamas' 50 Cents Notes may have come to a fork in the road: Discontinuation or New Issue with the portrait of an important local figure (as with larger denominations). I will be watching to see which path is followed.

This e-exhibit presents a complete Type Set* of the $0.50 banknotes issued for The Bahamas between 1966 and today; there have been five different design types issued.

* My Type Set provides an example of each major Design Type / Series, it does not include all signature combinations.