at an equal value to the US dollar. The new Bermuda dollars operated in conjunction with decimal fractional coinage, hence ending the £sd system in that colony in the year before it was ended in the United Kingdom itself. The decision to finally align with the US dollar was at least in part influenced by the devaluation of sterling in 1967 and Bermuda's increasing tendency to keep its reserves in US dollars. Although Bermuda changed to a U.S. based currency and changed the bulk of its reserves from sterling to U.S. dollars in 1970, it still nevertheless remained a member of the sterling area since at that time, sterling and the US dollar had a fixed exchange rate of £1 = $2.40. Following the US dollar crisis of 1971 which ended the international Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, the US dollar devalued, but the Bermuda dollar maintained its link to sterling. On 22 June 1972, the United Kingdom unilaterally ended its sterling area based exchange control laws, hence excluding Bermuda from its sterling area membership privileges. Bermuda responded on 30 June 1972 by amending its own exchange control laws accordingly, such as to impose exchange control restrictions in relation to Bermuda only. At the same time, Bermuda realigned its dollar back to one-to-one with the US dollar and formally pegged it to the US dollar at that rate. As far as United Kingdom law was concerned, Bermuda still remained a member of the overseas sterling area until exchange controls were abolished altogether in 1979. For a history of currency in the British West Indies in general, see Currencies of the British West Indies. References Chalmers, R., "A History of Currency in the British Colonies" (1893) External links Currencies of the British Empire Currencies of the Commonwealth of Nations Economy of Bermuda Currencies of North America Modern obsolete currencies 1970 disestablishments