36 EOBEET WALLACE McLACHLAN ON THE 



Treasurer reported that the copper halfpence were ready for issue.. It was therefore 

 ordered that these coins be received at the public offices to the exclusion of private 

 tokens/ 



In a letter to the agents the Treasurer writes that: — "The legislature having 



authorized the procuring of silver as well as copper tokens, I have therefore sent by Mr. 



Fraser one hundred Spanish milled dollars out of each of which to have five tokens made 

 with the King's head and the year upon one side and on the other side ' Province of Nova 

 Scotia ' round the margin and ' fifteen penny token ' in the centre." " This was to have 

 been a trial coinage to be followed by a much more extensive one should it prove satis- 

 factory. These coins, it would appear, were to have been issued as promissory tokens, 

 for out of the dollar, worth four shillings and two-pence sterling, coins to the amount of 

 six shillings and three pence were ordered to be made. The project was never carried 

 out, as silver coins could not legally be minted without the order of the King in Council.^ 

 The agents offered to make application for the necessary permission and to have it re- 

 commended by the member for Liverpool ; ' but they did not give much hope of success, 

 as several similar applications had already been refused. They also wrote that any 

 attempt at such coinage, without the requisite authority, might bring about an inter- 

 ference with any further coinage of copper tokens. Although this proposition, regarding 

 the Spanish dollars, apparently meant a profit of thirty- eight per cent, its ultimate effect, 

 had it been carried out and contiuned as the needs of the people required, would have 

 been so to have depreciated the Nova Scotian currency as to make the pound sterling- 

 current at thirty shillings. 



As soon as the tokens of 1823 had been approved of by the council and ordered to 

 be put into circulation, an order was given for four tons of pennies, supplemented later 

 on by an order for one ton of halfpennies.^ This was the coinage of 1824. Calculating 

 the pennies at twelve pennyweight and the halfpennies at five and a half, as stipulated 

 by the Treasurer, the number of the former would be 217,776 and of the latter 118,638, or 

 together equal to ^£1,154 lis 2d face value. If to this be added .£833 6s 6d, the face value 

 of the first order, we have a total of .£1,987 l7s 8d. The Treasurer reported the whole cost 

 of the two coinages, including freight and the " enormous premiums" paid for exchange, 

 to have been i;i,791 6s Id currency.'' This shows that the transaction apparently yielded 

 the treasury a profit of over eight hundred dollars. The features of the King on this 

 coinage are older than on that of 1823, appearing to have been copied from Pistrucci's 

 portrait on the earlier crov/ns of George IV. The die varieties are fewer and less distinc- 

 tive. From these orders we learn that the NoA'a Scotia penny was first struck in 1824, 

 notwithstanding that Sandham and those who quote from him describe one dated 1823." 



Although these coinages seem large for the limited commercial wants of the small 

 population then inhabiting the province, in less than eight years it became so inadeqtiate 



' Appendix V, g. 

 ^ Appendix V, i. 

 ' Appendix V, k. 



* William Huskisson, a prominent member of the House of Commons, holding at one time a seat in the 

 Cabinet, was accidentally killed at the opening of the first railway between Liverpool aud Manchester. 

 ' Appendix V, h and i. 

 ^ Appendix V, s. 

 ' Coins, Tokens and Medals of Canada : Montreal, 18G9 ; pages 16 and 17. 



