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We Want To Buy Guadeloupean Coins
We Want To Buy Guadeloupean Coins
A Brief History of Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is a Caribbean island and one of the Leeward Islands. It is an overseas region and department of France, and is considered to be an integral part of the Republic of France. Its capital is Basse-Terre.

French Settlement
Guadeloupe was first discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus on his Second Voyage, and named it Guadeloupe, after the famous Spanish monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe.
The island was first settled by the French in 1635, and was formally annexed by the French Crown in 1674. The island developed a very lucrative sugar industry (built on the bloody backs of slaves, who were imported in large numbers from Africa). This industry was so lucrative, that under the Treaty of Paris 1763, the French agreed to abandon on their claims to French Canada in return for Britain (who had captured Guadeloupe in 1759) handing the island back.
French Revolution
The French Revolution, and its notions of 'Liberte, Egalite and Fraternete' did not go down well with the aristocratic, slave-owning plantation elite of Guadeloupe, and they refused to recognise the new revolutionary government. A struggle between Monarchists and Republicans broke out, from which the monarchists emerged victorious. Guadeloupe therefore declared independence from Revolutionary France in 1791.
A slave rebellion in 1793 led to an invitation to the British to intervene, and the Britain took control of the island. However, in 1794, a French Colonial administrator, Victor Hugues rallied an army of slaves and free blacks and forced the British administration to surrender. Hugues then used an imported guillotine to purge the island of monarchists and 'counter-revolutionaries', securing the island for Revolutionary France.
The British seized the island again in 1810, eventually handing it back to France in 1816. Slavery was finally abolished on the island in 1848.

Overseas Department
Guadeloupe remained a French Colony until 1946, when it was made an Overseas Department of France and given representation in the French Senate and National Assembly.

Coins of Guadeloupe
The first coins used in Guadeloupe were probably Spanish, as Spanish dollars were the primary medium of exchange throughout the Caribbean and the Americas right up until the early 19th Century. However, French currency has been used on the island since early French Colonial times. The French Revolution and the subsequent turmoil meant that Guadeloupe continued to use the pre-revolutionary French livre until 1816.
Although coins of the French franc generally circulated in Guadeloupe, some coins struck specifically for colonial use were occasionally issued. Since 2002, Guadeloupe, along with the rest of France, converted to the Euro.

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Guadeloupean Coins

Guadeloupean Gold Coins


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