Solomon Islands pound
currency of the British Solomon Islands (1899–1966)
The pound was the currency of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate between 1899 and 1966. It was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Initially, sterling coin circulated, supplemented by local banknotes from 1916. In 1920, Australian coins and banknotes were introduced, although local paper money continued to be produced until 1932. When the Australian pound broke its parity to the sterling in 1930 during the Great Depression, this caused uncertainty in the British territories of the Western Pacific regarding whether their pound unit was a sterling or an Australian pound. This uncertainty prevailed into the mid-1930s and was only resolved when the matter was clarified by King's regulations. The final result was that all the British territories apart from Fiji adopted the Australian unit. As such, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate followed the course of Australia.
(The result was that Fiji had a distinct pound of its own that differed in value from sterling as well as from the Australian and New Zealand units. New Zealand was nearly at par with Australia, and all New Zealand controlled territories, notably Western Samoa, adopted the New Zealand unit which was later returned to parity with sterling in 1948.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Solomon Islands pound” is currency of the British Solomon Islands (1899–1966). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Solomon, Islands and pound, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “currency of the British Solomon Islands (1899–1966)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4493464. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1899, 1966, 1916 and 1920.
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This entry incorporates text from “Solomon Islands pound” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.