Bitt Public Deposited
The central portion of the Spanish Peso or Colonato, which was cut out and counterstamped for use in British Guiana and a number of the West Indian islands.
The word is also sometimes written Bitt, and is generally used as an equiva- lent for the Spanish silver Real. The value of the Bit itself was generally un- altered, but their number as an equivalent for the Spanish Dollar was increased or lowered. For details as to these fluctua- tions, see Caldecott in British Numismatic Journal (i. 294), and Wood in American Journal of Numismatics (xlviii. 89).
The name was used in an abbreviated form on a brass token issued by Herman Gossling in 1771, for the island of St. Eustatius. There are two varieties, marked 1 Bt. and 1/ 2 Bt.
The Bit, when used in computation in the Danish West Indies, is reckoned at the one-fifth of the copper cent of that country.
The last coinage of the islands before their purchase by the United States had their values expressed thus : 50 BIT - 10 CENTS on the dime-size silver, 25 BIT on the nickel, and 10, 5, and 2 1/2 BIT on the bronze. See Daler.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)