Why does St. Martin use the US dollar despite being in close proximity to the Netherlands and France ?

12 comments

1. As far as I’m aware, no, we do not own St. Martins. Wikipedia has this to say:

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   >The official currency of Saint Martin is the Euro, while Sint Maarten uses the Netherlands Antillean guilder, pegged at 1.79 per US dollar. As a consequence of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, the Netherlands Antillean guilder will cease to be legal tender and be replaced by the Caribbean guilder, which was scheduled for circulation in the first half of 2021,[49] but now scheduled for 2024.[50] Almost every store on the island also accepts the United States dollar, although sometimes a more expensive exchange rate is used.

2. America does not own St Martin. The northern part of the island is an overseas territory of France called Collectivité de Saint-Martin and the southern part is a Dutch overseas territory called Sint Maarten. Officially they use the Euro and the Netherlands Antilles Guilder respectively but the US Dollar functions as an unofficial currency for the whole island due to island’s exposure to US tourism (the island’s main industry).

3. St. Martin is PART of the Netherlands and France but it’s nowhere near the motherland in either case. Its official currency is therefore the Euro. Lots of countries in the Americas use the USD as a secondary or even primary currency for ease of trade with the 800-pound gorilla economy on their doorstep.

4. Went to Cambodia before covid. They used US currency a lot. I heard that their currency is being used more now but I don’t know the details.

   I think some countries use the US dollar because it’s stable and their own currency is fluctuating in value.

5. …I thought Americans were the ones who were bad at geography.

6. Ask them, not us

7. Why does Panama use the dollar?

8. I was there in March for a cruise. They belong to both European countries, but both sides happily accepted the USD.

9. This isn’t r/AskAStMaarten

10. St. Martin is in the Caribbean my dude. It’s nowhere near Netherlands or France.

11. I mean… I’ve been to some touristy towns in Nova Scotia where they accepted USD.

    They get a lot of US tourists so I guess it’s just easier than demanding Canadian dollars?

    I dunno..ask them

12. Dollarization is when a country starts using the US dollar as its currency (officially or unofficially). Generally, it happens when the local currency has become unstable, but there are other reasons for it like high tourist spots, occupation, and global trade.