Anthon.] -^ J -> [July 21, 



It bears slight marks of circulation, and was obtained in the latter city. 

 Hence it too, probably, was once in actual use. 



And here I have a remark to make : that it is a somewhat unreasonable, 

 albeit almost universal, trait of collectors of coins, to strive to obtain them 

 in a condition, if possible, uncirculated, or at least nearlj^ approaching that 

 state. Yet it is evident that marks of actual service, provided they have 

 not obliterated the legend or seriously impaired the device, ought to give 

 a heightened interest to these objects, as proving them to have been 

 handled by the people of their time. The desire to possess a collection, 

 wliich, in mechanical and artistic beauty and brilliancy, may compare 

 favorably with others, seems, however, to transcend, with most numis- 

 matists, every other consideration ; and accordingly a coin, which may be 

 called still-born, inasmuch as it has, by some accident, been snatched from 

 a coin's virtual existence, which is its circulation, on the very threshold of 

 such real life, has always commanded, and will continue to command the 

 preference. 



But it is now time to authenticate our GLORIAM REGNI, and estab- 

 lish, bj'^ evidence, that it is entitled to the estimation which we claim for 

 it. In the " Historic Treatise on the Coins of France, from the commence- 

 ment of the Monarchy to the present time," by Mons. Le Blanc, Paris, 

 1703, we read at page 388 : " In order to facilitate commerce in Canada, 

 the King caused to be struck a hundred thousand livres' w^orth of Louis of 

 15 sous, and of 5 sous, and Doubles of pure copper. These coins were of 

 the same value, weight, and fineness with those of France. On the silver 

 Louis of 15 sous and 5 sous, in place of the Sit nomen Domini benedictum, 

 there was Oloriam regni tui dicent, and on the Doubles, Doubles de 

 V Amerique Franroise." The specimen which I transmit to the Society, 

 must therefore, as its size and intrinsic value denote, be one of those of 

 Fifteen Sous. I am much inclined to doubt whether the Louis of five sous 

 was really struck, since I have never seen one or heard of one as actually 

 existing. Nor is any "Double" to be found, as far as I know, among 

 American collectors, though the inhabitants of Lower Canada and of the 

 French West India Islands have in all likelihood preserved some few ex- 

 amples. Mr. Crosby's heliotype portrait of the piece, plate III, No. 6, is 

 as he informs us, not taken from a genuine one. 



In a letter written at Quebec, Feb. 15, 1721 (Nouvelle France, Vol, III, 

 p. 91), Charlevoix gives us the following information on our subject : 

 Commerce in Canada was depressed by nothing perhaps more than "the 

 frequent changes which were made there in the coins. I will give a brief 

 account of the matter. In 1670, the West India Company, to which the 

 King had ceded the dominion over the Islands of the French American 

 Continent, had permission to introduce into the Islands small money to the 

 amount of a hundred thousand francs, stamped by a particular die, with a 

 legend which was peculiar to it. The King's edict is of the month of 

 February, and was to the effect that these coins should be current only in 

 the Islands. But on certain difficulties, which supervened, the Council 



