[m'laciilan] copper CURRENCY OF THE CANADIAN BANKS 225 



This protest, which was served on the 15th of June, claims that the 

 .cashier in a letter of the 26ith of Novemher, 1838, instructed Fumiss 

 to procure the coins through Scholefield & Son, who had fur- 

 nished those of 1837, and that they should " be similar in respect to 

 weight and fineness of material," and the protest further claims that 

 Furniss '" had procured the copper coin from some other manuf actury, 

 that the said coins are .... of base material different in all respects 

 in the manufacture, coinage land workmanship from those manufac- 

 tured the previous year, and are in fact utterly unworthy of 

 issue and disreputable to the manufactory,"" and further " that inas- 

 much as the said coins were ordered and manufactured .... for the 



special issue of the Bank of Montreal that none of (them) 



should be issued .... which would prove to the discredit of the 

 institution.''^ Three days later Albert Furniss had a stronger pro- 

 test served on Ootterill, Hill & Co., of Walsall, England,^ to whom 

 the order had been sent. Attached to this protest was a letter of 

 instructions to the notary in which it is stated that "the coin is to be 

 shipped for England to-morrow.^ 



These protests clear up some dark points in the history of this 

 coinage. Why are specimens of this issue so scarce? Were they 

 simply patterns for a contemplated coinage? Had the bank ever any- 

 thing to do with them ? No Canadian numismatist had any knowledge 

 that such a large coinage had been struck, that it had really been 

 imported into Canada and then rejected and returned to the makers. 



This coinage is unofficial, as no authorization either from the 

 Imperial or from the Provincial Governments was asked or obtained, 

 and then it does not even bear the name of the province, while it has 

 the name of the bank both on obverse and reverse, 



A second unsuccessful attempt was made by Cotterill, Hill & Co. 

 to satisfy the bank, for in the fall of the year 1839, according to the 

 minute book, which states under date 19th jSTovember; "letter received 

 from Mr. Furniss, also more coin but of lower grade than former ship- 

 ment."* This is the only record I have been able to discover respecting 

 the coinage of 1839, but it is sufficient for us to gather that another 

 shipment, of the san^e quantity as that of 1838, was struck from new 

 dies and sent out expec-ting that the bank would accept it. The appear- 

 ance of the coin does not bear out the bank's contention, that it was 

 of "lower grade." 



^ Appendix D, No. 1. 

 ' Ibid. Nb. 2. 

 • Ibid. No. 3. 

 I * Appendix C. 



Sec. II., 1903. 15. 



