Owner Comments:
During the period leading up to the production of these tokens, the highly complex monetary system already in place in Montreal was further suffering from a critical shortage of consistently reliable copper coinage. Echoing the struggles of England during the late 18th century, the government was unwilling to do anything about the issue primarily because it was too expensive and exporting copper coinage would yield a net loss to the government. Merchants stepped in to fill the void, which resulted in shoddy copper pieces of all descriptions and weights passing freely in commerce out of shear desperation. Unhappy with the current situation and feeling the increased pressure from the general populace, the Bank of Montreal set out to resolve the issue, with hopes that other financial institutions would help shoulder the burden. We learn from Vice (1990) that four banks came together to order equal shares of a new copper token coinage, which would be struck at the Soho Mint. After securing the necessary legal approvals to do so, the Soho Mint would employ a contractor by the name of Sheriff to engrave a common obverse and reverse design that would be shared between the four banks. The only distinction between the them would be the name of the bank listed within the ribbon on the reverse. As it turns out, this was a profitable business for the banks and many more orders would be placed, some of which were of questionable legality (Vice, 1990). To avoid any potential legal issues, all the tokens of the current design were dated 1837; however, almost a million halfpenny tokens were struck for the City Bank and the Québec Bank in 1839. In contrast, only 618,240 halfpenny tokens were struck in 1838 and split evenly between the Bank of Montreal and the Banque Du Peuple. The Soho mint did not produce any further examples employing the 1837 designs for the latter two institutions. To this end, they are technically more scare than their counterparts; however, the general mintages paired with surviving examples make all them relatively common.
Obverse: These pieces are colloquy known as Habitant Tokens due to the obverse design. The central device is a man dressed in the contemporary style of a French Canadian Farmer. The man is depicted standing wearing a traditional knee length Capote (a thick wool coat), which is presumably fastened by eight large round buttons, the upper rightmost button is obscured by the collar. Although the design is indistinct, a Ceinture fléchée appears around his waist. The engraver did an excellent job giving a sense of weight and thickness to his pants, which according to the times would have also been made of thick wool. Likewise, the robust nature of his footwear suggests the traditional Souliers de boeuf. Affixed his head is a rendition of a Tuque (a knitted wool cap).His left arm is outstretched to his side. A traditional whip appears clutched in his right hand. Just under his feet is a very small patch of grassy land, which divides the denomination with
UN on the left and
SOU on the right. The main legend,
PROVINCE DU BAS CANADA. appears in larger letters above. This design is contained within a beaded border which is superseded by a wider outer rim of higher relief. Although my image of the obverse is far superior to that provided by NGC, it fails to capture the multiple areas of colorful toning. For instance, the nearly black looking areas surrounding the denomination are actually a pleasing magenta when viewed in hand. The traditional attire depicted on this token became powerful symbols often associated with French-Candain Nationalism closely associated the proponents of the rebellion.
Reverse: The reverse design depicts the Coat of Arms for the City of Montreal, which was adopted in 1833. This looks very different compared to the modern rendition. In the center appears an oval shaped garter belt, secured by a buckle. The legend
CONCORDIA SALUS. appears within the belt centered at the top. A large heraldically colored (i.e., vertically striated) X appears within the oval center of the belt, which created four triangular shaped spaces. Within each of these triangular areas appears a symbol that is meant to represent the people who helped establish Montreal. The Rode of Lancaster appears at the top as symbol of the English. To the right appears a cluster of shamrock meant to represent the Irish. To left appears the thistle to represent the Scottish. In true Canadian spirit, a beaver crouched on a log appears at the bottom center. Oddly, the tail of beaver protrudes from the central design and overlaps the inner rim of the garter and the nearby ribbon. The oval garter is flanked on both sides by white pine leaves, a series of which wrap around the garter almost giving the appearance of support. To my knowledge, the white pine leaves are meant to represent the indigenous peoples. A wide ribbon with split ends is threaded through the inner portion of the garter. It is here that the name of each respective bank of engraved. In this instance it reads
BANK OF on the left, and
MONTREAL on the right. Centered below the buckle of the garter appears the date,
1837, and below that the denomination
HALF PENNY. close to the beaded border. Although divided by the garter the legend
BANK TOKEN appears above. This design is contained within a beaded border which is superseded by a wider outer rim of higher relief. The reverse of this piece is far superior to the obverse. The toning is more dramatic and the luster is blazing. The reverse alone ensures this piece remains in my collection even if I eventually secure an upgrade.
Edge: Plain
Notes: To borrow a phrase from a friend, this coin was not on my bingo card. However, it showed up during one of my searches and although the provided images were not the best, it looked like this piece had the natural blue tone that I have become so attracted to along with a lot of luster. I set what I thought was a low budget for this piece and somehow won it for far less than I assumed. To this end, the current piece is the epitome of an impulse purchase. Luckily, I was far from disappointed when the coin arrived in the mail. The NGC certification verification images make this coin look dull and colorless, and the seller’s images made it look like a toned blazer. I assumed the truth was somewhere in the middle between the mugshot and glamour image. Much to my surprise, the coin in hand is well represented by the seller’s images. Collapsing across the multitude of known varieties, this is far from the finest example in terms of technical grade, but I would be hard pressed to find an example with equal eye appeal for even three or four times what I paid for this piece.
REFERENCES:
Vice, D. (1990). Canadian Bank Tokens 1837-1845. Format Coins (41), Birmingham, 3-10.