Ancient Hawaiians did not use money. They provided for themselves or simply traded
for the things they needed.
The adoption of a Western style economy created a demand for
money. At first, this money consisted of
coins carried in from the variety of countries having interest in the islands.
Coins
This source proved unreliable and coins were in
chronically-short supply.
King Kamehameha III set out to rectify the shortage of
coinage and currency by including a provision for a Hawaiian monetary system in
his new legal code of 1846.
This system provided for a unit known as the dala, which was
based on the American dollar. The dala
was divided into 100 keneta (cents.)
Several denominations of fractional silver coins were
included in this system, as well as a copper piece to be valued at one keneta.
As prescribed by law, these copper pieces bore on their
obverse a facing portrait of Kamehameha III with his name and title Ka Moi (the
King).
Hawaii's first coins were issued in 1847. They were copper cents bearing the portrait
of King Kamehameha III. The coins proved
to be unpopular due to the poor quality image of the king.
Although it is claimed the denomination was misspelled (hapa
haneri instead of hapa haneli), the spelling "Hapa Haneri" was
included until the end the 19th century.
The spelling "Haneri" (Hawaiian for
"Hundred") appears on all $100 and $500 Hawaiian bank notes in
circulation between 1879 and 1900.
In 1883, silver coins were issued in denominations of one
dime (umi keneta), quarter dollar (hapaha), half dollar (hapalua) and one
dollar (akahi dala).
The vast majority of these coins were struck to the same specifications
as current US coins by the San Francisco Mint.
Hawaiian coins continued to circulate for several years
after the 1898 annexation to the United States.
In 1903, an act of Congress demonetized Hawaiian coins, and
most were withdrawn and melted, with a sizable percentage of surviving examples
made into jewelry.
Paper Money
As early as 1836, with coins in shortage, private Hawaiian
firms began to issue paper scrip of their own redeemable by the issuing company
in coins or goods.
At Kōloa Sugar Plantation, script was issued in payment for
services and redeemable at the plantation store; it started with simply a
notation of denomination and signature of the owner on cardboard.
However, due to counterfeiting, in 1839, script was printed
from engraved plates, with intricate waved and networked lines.
This more formal Kōloa Plantation script became the first
paper money from Hawai‘i. Not only was
this script accepted at the Plantation store, it became widely accepted by
other merchants on the island.
In early 1843,
apparently, the Lahainaluna Mission Seminary first issued its own paper money.
The Hawaiian government occasionally issued its own
banknotes between 1847 and 1898 in denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100
Hawaiian Dollars.
However, these notes were only issued in small numbers and
US notes made up the bulk of circulating paper money.
In 1895, the newly formed Republic of Hawai‘i issued both
gold and silver coin deposit certificates for $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. These were the last Hawaiian notes issued.
The image shows printed note from Kōloa Plantation (Ladd
& Company.) In addition, I have
included some of the coins and banknotes issued in Hawai‘i in a folder of like
name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.
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