Canadian Province Tokens and Coins

According to the coin book [Year] North American Coins & Prices, the earliest Canadian coins were one-cent coins minted in 1858.  Notice the Confederation of Canada did not exist until 1967.  How can this be?  The Province of Canada did exist and used the name Canada prior to 1867.  It can be argued that these were province coins for the Province of Canada. 

Some of the earlier “coins” were classified tokens.  Permission to mint money was not always forthcoming from the British government, but the minting of these pieces went on due to need.  Hence, they would need to properly be called tokens. 

Only four other provinces had coins prior to joining the Confederation of Canada.  They are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.

To clarify why other provinces did not have coins minted we must consider the need.  The people of the remaining provinces would have had access to foreign coins, and with sparse populations these provinces would have had no need.  Certainly, British coins would have been available to the inhabitants in some limited degree.  But, more importantly, the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan were not yet provinces prior to joining Canada.  Manitoba was part of Rupert’s land, and the others were formed from territorial land.  They only became provinces with their reclassification by the Confederation of Canada as provinces, and were not provinces outside the confederation.

Because of prices of goods at the time, the need for small denomination tokens existed, but not for larger denomination tokens.   Collecting smaller denomination tokens is less expensive.  For one thing precious metal would not be used in a one-cent piece.  Another factor is pieces of smaller denominations are needed in large quantities.  So, there are tokens to be found.

Another consideration is, with the exception of Newfoundland, the series are short, making obtaining a complete set of tokens for a province possible. 

Finally, no additional province pieces, neither coins nor tokens, will be minted.  Collectors like closed sets.  Knowing the collection is complete is a desirable factor.

A good book can be quite helpful when collecting coins and tokens.  [Year] North American Coins & Prices is an excellent book.  This book lists the pieces issued for each year and mintmark, gives number minted for each, identifies any mintmark, identifies the metal, and indicates the number of proof pieces, if any.

Because these are closed sets no longer being added to, and because the value in a coin guide is old by the time the guide is printed, it makes no significant difference which year the guide is for.  Purchasing an older issue can provide a savings.    

Prince Edward Island issued a bronze cent coin in 1871, including two thousand of these coins having been minted as proof.

The earlier coinage used by Prince Edward Island were one-shilling and five-shilling pieces.  These came from Spanish and Colonial Spanish eight-reales pieces, which were silver coins.  The method of making these coins was to cut a hole in the center of a large silver coin.  The coin with the hole would be countermarked, thereby making it coinage for the province.  In 1813 the plug, sometimes called the dump, would become the one-shilling piece.  The countermarked silver coin with the hole became a five-shilling piece.  Five-shilling pieces were made using eight-reales silver pieces from Lima from 1809 through 1811, and from using the Mexico City eight-reales pieces from 1791 through 1811.  In 1808 the design of the Mexican silver coin changed, so two varieties exist.

Using foreign coins was not unusual for that period.

The Province of Nova Scotia first tokens were the half penny of 1823, followed by the penny token dated 1824.  There were years when tokens were not issued.  In 1856 the last tokens for Nova Scotia were struck. 

In 1861 both the half penny and the penny coins were minted.  These were followed by the 1862 penny and the 1864 half penny and penny coins. 

From July 1, 1867, onward Nova Scotia was part of the Confederation of Canada, although Canadian cent coins would not again be struck for several years.  In the days when provinces did not yet join into the confederation, minting would take place when there was a need, and this practice continued after the formation of the confederation.

The first tokens with the denomination of cent and half-cent were minted for circulation in New Brunswick in 1843.  Both were again minted for 1854, the last year tokens were produced for New Brunswick.

The bronze coins of the denominations half-cent and the cent were minted in 1861, and a second minting of the cent coin occurred in 1864.

New Brunswick required coins of larger denominations.  The five cent, ten cent, and twenty cent Sterling silver coins served this purpose.  Each was struck in both 1862 and in 1864.  The actual silver weight of the of the coins of the three denominations were three hundredths of an ounce, seven hundredths of an ounce, and fourteen hundredths of an ounce, respectively. 

Newfoundland was already established when Canada was organized in 1867.  However, it did not join the Confederation of Canada until 1949.  Indeed, it became a British Dominion in 1907, and a dependent territory of the United Kingdom from 1934 until 1949. 

The coinage of Newfoundland includes a large cent coin from 1865 through 1936, followed by a small cent coin from 1838 until the last Newfoundland coins were produced in 1947.

Sterling silver coins, 0.925 silver, of denominations five cents and ten cents were minted from 1865, with the composition changing to 0.800 silver in 1944 for the five-cent coins and in 1945 for the ten-cent coins.  Twenty-cent coins in Sterling silver were minted from 1865 through 1912, and the slightly larger denomination of twenty-five cents had a brief run in 1917 and 1919.  Fifty-cent coins of Sterling silver were produced from 1870 until 1909.

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