The dollar has been the currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 of Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

 since 1943. It was also the country's currency between 1847 and 1907. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign

Dollar sign

The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...

 $, or alternatively L$ or LD$ to distinguish it from other dollar

Dollar

The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...

-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cent

Cent (currency)

In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....

s.

First dollar

The first Liberian dollar was issued in 1847. It was pegged

Fixed exchange rate

A fixed exchange rate, sometimes called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is matched to the value of another single currency or to a basket of other currencies, or to another measure of value, such as gold.A fixed exchange rate is usually used to...

 to the US dollar at par and circulated alongside the US dollar until 1907, when Liberia adopted the British West African pound, which was pegged to sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

.

Coins

In 1847, copper 1 and 2 cents coins were issued and were the only Liberian coins until 1896, when a full coinage consisting of 1, 2, 10, 25 and 50 cents coins were introduced. The last issues were made in 1906.

Banknotes

The Treasury Department issued notes between 1857 and 1880 in denominations of 10 and 50 cents, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 dollars.

Second dollar

United States currency replaced the British West African pound in Liberia in 1935 http://users.erols.com/kurrency/lr.htm. Starting in 1937, Liberia issued its own coins which circulated alongside US currency.

The flight of suitcase-loads of USD paper in the economic collapse following the April 12, 1980 coup d'état created a currency shortage, which was only exacerbated when the government began minting $5 coins. Unfortunately the 7-sided coins were the same size and weight as the one-dollar coin; this similarity was frequently abused by traders.

In the late 1980s the coins were largely replaced with a newly-designed $5 note modeled on the US greenback ("J. J. Roberts" notes). The design was modified during the 1990-2004 civil war to ostracize notes looted from the Central Bank of Liberia. This effectively created two currency zones -- the new "Liberty" notes were legal tender in government-held areas (primarily Monrovia), while the old notes were legal tender in non-government areas. Each was of course illegal in the other territory.

Following the election of the Charles Taylor government in 1997 a new series of banknotes dated 1999 was introduced on March 29, 2000.

Coins

In 1937, coins were issued in denominations of ½, 1 and 2 cents. These were augmented in 1960 with coins for 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents.I have a 1968 Dollar coin. A $1 coin was issued the following year. Five-dollar coins were issued in 1982 and 1985 (see above). According to the 2009 Standard Catalog of World Coins (Krause Publications, Iola, WI), numerous commemorative coins (featuring U.S. Presidents, dinosaurs, Chinese Lunar-Zodiac animals, etc.) in denominations ranging from 1 to 2500 Dollars have been issued beginning in the 1970s through the present.

Banknotes

Five-dollar notes were introduced in 1989 which bore the portrait of J. J. Roberts. These were known as "J. J. Roberts" notes. In 1991, similar notes were issued (see above) which replaced the portrait with Liberia's arms. These were known as "Liberty" notes. On March 29, 2000, new banknotes dated 1999 were introduced in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollars, and these remain in current use, although they underwent a minor redesign in 2003 and have been issued with different printed years and signature combinations.

1999 series
Images		Value	Background color	Description			Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse	Reverse	Watermark	first series	Issue
		$5	Red Red Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...	President Edward J. Roye Edward James Roye Edward James Roye served as the fifth President of Liberia from 1870 to his overthrow and subsequent violent death in 1871. He had previously served as the 4th Chief Justice of Liberia from 1865 until 1868...	Woman harvesting rice Rice Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...	Seal of Liberia	1999	March 29, 2000
		$10	Blue Blue Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...	President Joseph J. Roberts Joseph Jenkins Roberts Joseph Jenkins Roberts was the first and seventh President of Liberia. Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, Roberts emigrated to Liberia in 1829 as a young man. He opened a trading store in Monrovia, and later engaged in politics...	Rubber tapper Rubber tapping Rubber tapping is the process by which the sap is collected from a rubber tree. An incision is made in the tree's bark, which cuts through the planting cycle to optimise the latex yield....	Seal of Liberia	1999	March 29, 2000
		$20	Maroon Maroon Maroon, marooning, or marooned may refer to:* Maroon , a dark shade of red* Maroon , runaway slaves, of African origin, in the Americas* Marooning, the act of leaving someone on a deserted island-Music:...	President William V. S. Tubman William Tubman William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman was a Liberian politician. He was the 19th President of Liberia from 1944 until his death in 1971....	Young men by the road with scooters Scooter (motorcycle) A scooter is a motorcycle with step-through frame and a platform for the operator's feet. Elements of scooter design have been present in some of the earliest motorcycles, and motorcycles identifiable as scooters have been made from 1914 or earlier...	Seal of Liberia	1999	March 29, 2000
		$50	Pink Pink Pink is a mixture of red and white. Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color known today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century.... /Purple Purple Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....	President Samuel K. Doe Samuel Doe Samuel Kanyon Doe was the 21st President of Liberia, serving from 1986 until his assassination in 1990. He had previously served as Chairman of the People's Redemption Council from 1980 to 1986. He was the first indigenous head of state in Liberian history.Doe was a part of a rural tribe in inland...	Worker on a palm plantation	Seal of Liberia	1999	March 29, 2000
		$100	Green Green Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...	President William R. Tolbert, Jr.	Market Market A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...  woman and her child	Seal of Liberia	1999	March 29, 2000

External links

• Liberian banknotes