At the present time American money is the basis and Dominican silver
and copper is regarded merely as fractional currency, one peso
Dominican being equivalent to twenty cents American.
At various times the Dominican Republic has had disastrous experiences
with paper money issued without sufficient guarantees. One service
rendered by the Spaniards during their occupation in the sixties was
the retirement of large amounts of such paper. The troubles
accompanying unsecured paper money had been forgotten when Heureaux in
his attempts to raise funds floated an issue of a nominal amount of
$3,600,000 in notes, of the Banque Nationale, in addition to a small
amount already emitted by the bank. Such demoralization resulted that
at one time it took twenty dollars in paper money to purchase one
dollar in gold. The national bank notes having been demonetized,
various amounts were purchased at auction by the administrations
succeeding Heureaux and destroyed, and almost all the remainder has
been redeemed at five to one under the 1907 debt settlement. The only
paper now seen is American paper money, which circulates at a par with
American silver and gold.
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