 Even though the British sterling coins were made of silver, they were fractional coins of the British gold sovereign and hence they maintained their gold value.This left a state of affairs, in which the British coinage circulated, being reckoned in dollar accounts at an automatic conversion rate of 1 dollar = 4 shillings 2 pence.From 1949, with the introduction of the British West Indies dollar, the currency of Dominica became officially tied up with that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general.