Pirate refuge in the Caribbean.

So here we have the British Virgin Islander dollar, nominal – 1. The year of issue of this coin is 2002, mint: British Pobjoy Mint, Tadworth, England. The coin commemorates the 50th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

It is generally thought that the Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC to AD 200, though there is some evidence of Amerindian presence on the islands as far back as 1500 BC. The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, a tribe from the Lesser Antilles islands.

Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, he named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes (“St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins”). In 1555 the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Charles V sent a Spanish invasion force to claim the islands, and by 1596 most of the Caribs had fled or been killed. The islands were an early haunt of buccaneers and pirates.

Tortola was first settled in 1648 by Dutch buccaneers who held the island until it was taken over in 1666 by a group of English planters. In 1672 it was annexed to the British-administered Leeward Islands. The planters were granted civil government in 1773, with an elected House of Assembly, a partly elected Legislative Council, and constitutional courts. The abolition of slavery in the first half of the 19th century dealt a heavy blow to the agricultural economy.