The Caribbean guilderCuraçao's money, explained for visitors

Visitors who last came before 2025 will find new notes, new colours and price tags that now say Cg. Nothing about the cost of a coffee on Breedestraat changed with them. This guide explains the switch from the source, the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten, and turns it into the few things a visitor actually needs to know.

I.What changed in 2025, and what did not

Curaçao and Sint Maarten form a monetary union with one central bank, the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS). On 31 March 2025 the Caribbean guilder became legal tender on both islands as the replacement for the Netherlands Antillean guilder.

The old guilder had outlived the country it was named for. The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved on 10 October 2010, when Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and for almost fifteen years both kept paying in Antillean guilders. The new currency gives the two countries money of their own, issued by the bank they share.

What did not change is the part that matters to a visitor. The exchange between old and new guilders was 1:1, so every price kept its number. The peg stayed too: by law, US$1 equals Cg 1.79, the same fixed rate the old guilder used.

SourceCBCS, Caribbean guilder FAQ, CBCS, Caribbean guilder, MDC, 2018 study, on the 2010 dissolution.

II.Reading prices: Cg, XCG and NAf

You will meet the currency under three labels:

• Cg is the currency symbol, the one you will see on price tags and menus.
• XCG is the official code in the payment system, so it is the label most likely to appear on a card slip or in your banking app.
• NAf or ANG is the old Antillean guilder. Signs printed before 2025 may still use it, and because the switch was one for one, the number still means the same amount.

To turn guilders into dollars, divide by 1.79. For a quick estimate, a guilder price is a little under twice the dollar price, so Cg 20 is about US$11.

SourceCBCS, Caribbean guilder FAQ.

III.What the notes show

The banknotes follow a theme the bank calls World Under the Sea: marine life on the front and landmarks from both islands on the back. Three of them picture places you can visit from Punda.

The Cg 200 shows the Queen Emma Bridge, the floating bridge two minutes on foot from our door; our Queen Emma Bridge guide explains why it swings open. The lighthouse on the Cg 10 stands on Klein Curaçao, covered in our Klein Curaçao guide, and the beach on the Cg 50 is Grote Knip on the west coast.

The coins carry a sea theme as well, with seashells, turtles and waves, in designs that are similar but distinct for Curaçao and Sint Maarten. They come as 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents, 1 guilder and 5 guilders. The notes come as 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 guilders.

If you want to check a note, the bank publishes a My Caribbean Guilder app that walks through the security features of each one.

SourceCBCS, banknotes, CBCS, Curaçao coins, CBCS, FAQ.

IV.Old Antillean guilders: the deadlines

So if old notes turn up in a drawer from an earlier trip, a shop will not take them and a commercial bank will not swap them. The central bank still will. Its procedure lets people without a bank account exchange up to 20,000 guilders once without an appointment, pays out in cash, and asks for an online appointment and proof of the source of funds above that amount. The bank's pages do not address visitors from abroad specifically, so contact the CBCS before you plan an errand around it.

SourceCBCS, exchange procedure, CBCS, FAQ.

V.Island hopping: three islands, three currencies

The Caribbean guilder is shared by Curaçao and Sint Maarten only. If your trip includes the other ABC islands, the money changes with the ferry or the flight.

• Bonaire, now a public body of the Netherlands, pays in US dollars. The dollar became its legal tender on 1 January 2011, and the old Antillean guilders there could only be swapped until 30 June 2011.
• Aruba has its own Aruban florin, issued by the Centrale Bank van Aruba and pegged at Afl. 1.79 to US$1.

So the number 1.79 appears on two islands, attached to two different currencies. A Caribbean guilder note is not Aruban money, and an Aruban florin is not Curaçao money, so spend each island's notes before you move on. Our comparison of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao covers the rest of the differences.

SourceDe Nederlandsche Bank, Staatscourant 2011, 1178, Centrale Bank van Aruba, history.

VI.Dollars, cards and cash in practice

None of this changes how a visit works. US dollars are accepted nearly everywhere on the island, cards cover most spending in Willemstad, and your change will often come back in guilders. Cash still rules at a few of the best places: the boats of the Floating Market, the lunch counters of Plasa Bieu and the entry kiosks of some west coast beaches. Our Curaçao currency and money guide covers ATMs, cards and tipping in full, and is Curaçao expensive? puts the numbers in context.

Before you fly, spend your guilders or keep a coin as a souvenir. The bank's pages say nothing about exchanging Caribbean guilders abroad, so we would not count on it. The simplest habit is to pay the last café bill of the trip in guilders.

Keep exploring

i

Plan Your Trip

Curaçao currency and money guide: guilders, dollars, and tipping

Curaçao currency explained: the guilder pegged at 1.79 to the US dollar, where cards and dollars work, ATM…

ii

Plan Your Trip

Is Curaçao expensive? An honest cost guide by tier

Is Curaçao expensive? An honest cost guide with budget, mid range, and premium tiers for meals, beaches,…

iii

Beaches & Nature

Klein Curaçao: how to do the uninhabited island day trip right

Klein Curaçao day trip guide: how the boats work, the two hour crossing, the lighthouse walk, what to…

Stay in the middle of it

A restored 1892 monument, steps from everything in this guide.

Eighteen boutique rooms across five categories on Breedestraat, Punda. Signature balconies over the main street, and the Van Gogh café pouring espresso downstairs. Reserve your room on Airbnb in a few taps.

See the Rooms Book on Airbnb From $105 / night