[m'lachlan] copper currency OF THE CANADIAN BANKS 223 



the other banks. Otherwise it was to be for half the amount. But 

 from the occurrence of the names of three other banks on the tokens we 

 know he succeeded in inducing them all to participate. 



Nothing is mentioned in any of the documents regarding the .adop- 

 tion of the design or to whom such design may be attributed. But in 

 any case it is very chaste and the most truly Canadian of any other 

 coin that has appeared. It can in fact be called the Canadian national 

 coin. The arms of Montreal were designed by Jacques Viger, elected 

 first Mayor, when the city received its charter in 1832. Thoy are 

 almost alone among civic arms in Canada, in following true heraldic 

 rules. This may be attributed to the fact that Viger was an antiqua- 

 rian of no mean order; and also a man of artistic taste. May we not 

 conclude that the typical French Canadian farmer (the habitant) of 

 the observe is also the suggestion of Viger.^ It must at least have 

 been the drawing of a man in sympathy with the French Canadian 

 people and at the same time of artistic talent. Every detail in that 

 costume, once so familiar in the streets of Montreal, was delineated and 

 tiie engraver followed the design so faithfully as to leave nothing to be 

 desired. There is the tuque hleue, the frock over-coat of homespun, 

 étoffe with capuchon, the sasih, ceinture fléchée, and the beef mocassins, 

 souliers de hœuf. And in his hand the everlasting w'hip. Furniss sent 

 the order to Scholefield & Son of Liverpool, who as factors or manu- 

 facturers' agents, with their head office in Birmingham, passed it on 

 to Boulton & Watt, of the Soho Mint in that city, the real coiners.^ 

 This firm which did work equal in finish to any of the national coin- 

 age, often undertook large contracts for the Government in that line, 

 when the Eoyal mint was unable to cope with the demand. In this 

 manner the extensive coinage of the well known copper penny and 

 two-penny pieces of 1797 were struck by them as were also a number 

 of foreign coinages about that time. Messrs. Boulton & Watt's con- 

 nection with the Eoyal mint led to the recognition of the bank tokens 

 as lawful " coin of the realm " in Canada, by not only the Provincial 

 but by the Imperial Government. They suggested to Scholefield & Son 

 that, as it was contrary to law to coin copper money without authority, 



ber of Montreal enterprises, and it was he who estaiblished the first gas works 

 in the city. 



'■ Since wri.ting the above I have comie across a bank bill issued in August, 

 1S36, by the Banque Canadienne, which was carried on in St. Hyacinthe by 

 the firm of Archambault, Pacaud, De Labruère & Cie. The reverse of this 

 bill bears a figure of a Habitant exactly like that on the bank tokens. As 

 this bill was engraved by Rawdon, Wright & Hatch; of New York, it is 

 evident that the same design was adopted for both the bill and the coin, 

 probably the latter was copied from the former. 



- Appendix E, No. 2. 



