ANNALS OF THE NOVA SCOTIAN CURRENCY. 37 



that a new and much larger supply had to be ordered. In 1832 three commissioners 

 were appointed who at once sent an order, to the provincial agent in London, for .£600 

 sterling in pennies and =£1,200 in halfpennies.' Calculating the cost at the same rate as 

 in 1823 the number of pieces should be about 200,000 and 800,000, respectively ; worth 

 ,£2,500 face value on which, after allowing for the difference of the currency and cost of 

 transport, the treasury netted a profit of about $1,500. Although, as is reported, many 

 pairs of dies were destroyed in striking such a large coinage - no die varieties have been 

 noted ; which shows that the dies were duplicated by sinking them with a hub die. 

 The design, a copy of that of 1824, hardly so well executed, is wanting both in boldness 

 of relief and artistic merit. In connection with the copying of the old design a strange 

 oversight on the part of the commissioners may be described. They wrote to the Agent : 

 " We have herewith sent a specimen of those hitherto imported and we will be obliged 



by your transmitting, at your earliest convenience, tokens similar to those sent 



with alteration of the year to 1832." ^ Nothing is said about the bust of the King ; con- 

 sequently the Agent and Coiner, without question, did strike the coins according to 

 sample, " with the exception of the date which will iu course be 1832," ^ although in 

 the second year of William IV., bearing the bust of his predecessor.'* Had these coins 

 been inscribed with the name of the King such a blunder could not have occurred. 

 This coinage although large was rushed through with considerable dispatch for it was 

 delivered within five months from the sending of the order. This, allowing for the 

 slowness of the mails and transport of those times, left about seventy days for its 

 execution. 



The coins of 1832 were extensively counterfeited as there are three or four light 

 varieties in each denomination very inferior in workmanship. Of these one has a curious 

 transposition in the date making it read as if struck in " 1382." " They are so poor as to 

 be evidently the work of unskilled engravers. The style of art, the inferior quality of the 

 brass, and their lightness point to Montreal or vicinity as the place of mintage. Vast quan- 

 tities of similar base coin were struck and put into circulation in Lower Canada between 

 the years 1833 and 1837. Had they been imported from Birmingham or the United States, 

 their execution would have been better and the metal purer. Old residents state that 

 these counterfeits were brought, in large quantities, by vessels to St. John, N.B., and from 

 thence distributed through fishing vessels to Nova Scotian out ports. An informant tells 

 of having seen a fisherman from Yarmouth paid for his catch in this coin. The counter- 

 feits, although easily detected by numismatists, continued for a time to circulate un- 

 challenged with the genuine. But, as they came to be issued in such large quantities 

 that their number exceeded the genuine, the attention of the government was called to 

 the matter and their further circulation stopped. They were then gathered up and 

 shipped to the Upper Provinces whence they came. 



' Appendix VI, a. 

 ' Appendix VI, d. 

 ' Appendix VI, a. 



* Appendix VI, c. 



* A coin of the Province of Upper Canada, struck in the same year, also bears a bust of George IV. Thig 

 mistake is not so easily accounted for as it was the only official coin of that province. It seems to connect the 

 coinage iu some way with that of Nova Scotia; possibly the upper province asked for coins similar to those of 

 the lower. 



° Appendix XI., c. 



