Scottsdale creates silver bullion coin for Barbados

By Jeff Starck

Published: Sep 26, 2017, 8 AM

The Scottsdale Mint offers a new silver bullion coin it minted in the name of Barbados. The 1-ounce .999 fine silver $1 coin depicts the head of a trident (which appears on the Barbados national flag), on the reverse, along with the face value.

Coin images courtesy of Emporium Hamburg.

Another country has joined the parade of silver bullion issuers in 2017.

The private Scottsdale Mint offers a new silver bullion coin minted in the name of Barbados, following issues it minted for Cayman Islands, the Republic of Chad and others.

U.S. Mint welcomes a fourth metal to the American Eagle bullion program. Also in this week’s print issue of Coin World, we teach our readers about what a “weak-fatty” gold coin is and why you don’t want one in your collection.

The 1-ounce .999 fine silver dollar from Barbados depicts the national symbol, the trident (which appears on the Barbados national flag), on the reverse, along with the face value.

The trident, a symbol of strength and power, is drawn from the weapon of the mythical Roman god of freshwater and the sea, Neptune, and often pictured in the hands of Britannia. However, the trident appearing as the national pride of Barbados, and on the Barbados national flag, differs from Neptune’s weapon in that the Barbadian trident is only the trident head, with no shaft, and is characterized as a broken trident, symbolizing Barbados’ historical break and eventual independence from the United Kingdom in 1966.

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The obverse displays the year of issue, 2017, and the Barbados coat of arms, the national symbol featuring a raised fist of a Barbadian grasping two stalks of sugar cane above a shield. Upon the shield are a pair of the national flowers, known as the pride of Barbados, and a single bearded fig tree. The shield is supported by a dolphin fish and a pelican. They stand for the fishing industry and Pelican Island, respectively.

Both obverse and reverse rims feature wavy radial lines that the Scottsdale Mint says make the coins harder to duplicate and provide a measure of security.

The coin has a limited mintage of 30,000 coins.

Individual coins are offered in protective plastic capsules. Multiples of five typically are presented in a sealed sheet. Multiples of 240 are packaged in a larger box.

As of Sept. 26, distributors offered the coin for about $6 to $7 above the precious metal, or “spot,” price, depending on payment method, and as low as $5 above spot, depending on quantity purchased.