40 ROBEET WALLACE McLACHLAN ON THE 



entrusted to Ralph Heaton & Sons, the great Birmingham firm of coiners ; and together 

 they have produced that beautiful bronze coinage of 1856, which has continued to be the 

 pride of patriotic Nova Scotians. This is how the bristling thistle, received from the 

 stern mother, came to be supplanted in the affections of the daughter by the sweet and 

 lowly May-flower. 



In 1861 the decimal system, based on the Halifax standard of twenty-five shillings 

 or five dollars to the pound sterling, was adopted, isolating Nova Scotia from the mone- 

 tary systems of the other provinces that were based on that of the United States by 

 which the pound was reckoned at the rate of |4.86f;. Under this system, as English silver 

 coins could easily be circulated at their proper relative values, no provincial coinage was 

 required, except the cents in copper, and. to make proper change for the sixpence which 

 passed for twelve and one-half cents, the half cent. As this was the first provincial coin, 

 smaller than the halfpenny, it never was popular, and, ceasing to be necessary after the 

 withdrawal of the English silver in 18^1, no longer passed current. In connection with 

 the coinage of the half cents a mistake made at the Royal mint, where these coins were 

 struck, may be mentioned. A coinage of cents, of the same design, was also ordered in 

 1861 for New Brunswick, and, although this order required no half cents, a quantity 

 were struck and sent out with those ordered for Nova Scotia. These copper, or rather 

 bronze cents and half cents were the first true coins, struck under royal authority at the 

 Royal Mint, for the province ; all others, as the word token inscribed thereon indicates, 

 were simply provincial promises to pay. The amounts issued were 800,000 cents and 

 400,000 half cents in 1861, the same quantities in 1864, and 1,000,000 cents in 1862. Al- 

 though such a large number of cents are reported by the Mint authorities to have been 

 issued, cents of 1862 are rather scarce, commanding in good condition, a premium among 

 collectors. When the new coins were introduced the old tokens were withdrawn from 

 circulation and sent to the Upper Provinces where they continued to circulate until the 

 old coppers were called in, between 18Y0 and 18*73, by Sir Francis Hincks, finance 

 minister. The design was entirely changed, and consisted of a wreath of May-flowers and 

 roses entwined inclosing an imperial crown and the date on the reverse ; while the 

 obverse was the same as that of the ordinary English halfpenny. A pattern was first 

 submitted on which the wreath consisted of roses only, but it was rejected because it did 

 not display the emblem held in such high esteem in the land of the May-flower. 



If we estimate the issues of private firms and counterfeiters to be about one and a 

 half millions, this, with those issued by the government, would make the total number of 

 copper tokens imported into Nova Scotia, within the hundred years previous to Confedera- 

 tion, about ten millions, at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars to the general public. 

 In coining these different issues, private and provincial, not less than sixty-five tons of 

 copper was employed. Almost the whole of this has disappeared or been destroyed. 

 An average annual loss of 10,000 tokens, worth one thousand dollars. If to this we add 

 one thousand dollars for loss and wear of the limited gold and silver circulation, and 

 three thousand for loss and renewal of the treasury notes, we can safely calculate the an- 

 nual cost of their circulating medium to the people of Nova Scotia at about five thousand 

 dollars. 



And now looking back over that hundred years of struggle and privation, during 

 which those indomitable pioneers opened up and pushed forward trade under adverse 



