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accepted amongst the populace. The banks of the time, City Bank, Quebec Bank, Banque du Peuple and the Bank of Montreal in wishing to put an end to the light weight spurious issues ordered tokens of their own made to proper specifications. Later, the Province of Canada ( Upper and Lower Canada combined - 1840's ) issued coinage in 1858/59. These pieces were not considered 'official' by the other parts of what later became Canada as a whole. Afterwards, the first coins of the Dominion of Canada were issued in 1870. During this entire time private issues were made by many individual merchants. Molson's and the Hudson's Bay Company are two such companies that you know of still in existence today that issued tokens of their own. It is through these private issues by merchants that we can trace some of the history of our small towns and villages. Forgotten names suddenly can be brought to light because of these small metal tokens saved by our forefathers as a reminder of what was. A realization of how young a country Canada is can be made when studying the monetary evolution of this Nation. Starting with the beaver pelt and Wampum belt through to our modern day decimal coinage. Scott Douglas is an avid coin collector from Acton and member of the Esquesing Historical Society. He will speak at our November meeting. Members are invited to bring coins and tokens - particularly local Canadian items, to share at the meeting. 25th Anniversary of Esquesing Historical Society The year 2000 marks the 25th anniversary of the Esquesing Historical Society. The Society preserves a letter in its Archives from librarian Betsy Cornwall. It says in part, "A meeting of people interested in Georgetown's past will be held in the Public Library on Monday January 20, 1975 at 8 p.m." At the meeting it was decided to expand the mandate of the new Society to encompass all of the township of Esquesing. The programme for the first year was rather hap-hazard. The Oakville Historical Society addressed the first meeting in January, 1975 on the topic of "forming an Historical Society". The second meeting convened in April to hear John Rempel speak on "Historic Buildings Preservation". In June John McDonald offered the first of many historical walking tours of downtown Georgetown. Rev. Rick Ruggle spoke about Norval in November and in December the Society convened in front of a roaring fire-place at the Halton Region Museum to recall Christmas in pioneer style. That marked the first of ten different trips to the Museum in Milton, to spend our December meeting. The Society will mark the 25th anniversary with a slide show in January showing a selection of slides from around the township and at the February Annual General meeting. Esquesing Historical Society Newsletter 2