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ESQUESING HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER P.O. Box 51, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada L7G 4T1 November - December 1999 CANADA'S MONEY Scott E. Douglas During the colonization of Canada neither the French (1670-1760) nor England (1760-1830) were able to provide a growing economy with any form of official uniform currency such as we enjoy today. Shortages of currency for everyday commerce were all too common an occurrence. A study in what passed for money early in this countries economic development is very enlightening. During the French Regime the beaver pelt was the first item accepted in trade and can be thought of as our first money native Indians and Whites. The natives continued to use wampum well into the late 1700's. WAMPUM During the French Regime playing card money and jetons were used in emergency form. The SoL, Livre and Ecu were used as our French Canadian colonial issues. French Regime playing-card money. Nova Scotia was the first colony to issue a regular coinage about 1814. In 1823 the Nova Scotia thistle token appeared with George IV on the obverse and a Scottish thistle on the reverse. These tokens appeared again in 1824 and strangely in 1832 even though King William had now reigned for two years. The thistle token, it should be noted, was ordered by the Nova Scotia government without the approval of the British government. New Brunswick issued tokens in 1843 and PEI between 1830 and 1860. Newfoundland also eased the currency shortage by the issue of tokens made by four brothers from England who set up as merchants 1840-1846. Their name was Rutherford. As many of the tokens issued were unofficial, counterfeits were common. Of course the counterfeits would always be of lighter weight and yet because they filled such a desperate need were widely Esquesing Historical Society Newsletter 1