230 KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the bank until after its failiire in 1S66, when they were sold for old 

 copper. Several tons of the penny pieces came into the possession of 

 E. Chanteloup, brass founder, Montreal, by whom they were melted 

 down. In the meantime an act was passed by which ail transactions 

 by and with the government should be calculated in decimal currency/ 

 when the government undertook a duty which it had long shirked, a 

 duty first rendered necessary when the Halifax currency was adopted. 

 To meet the requirements of the new system a coinage of cents was 

 ordered in 1858, from the Eoyal Mint. But this coinage, which 

 amounted to 10,000,000 pieces, was issued altogether too soon, for the 

 people had not yet accommodated themselves to the new way of count- 

 ing. Consequently very little of it was put into circulation, except at 

 a discount of twenty per cent, until 1870, when the old base coppers, 

 that had gradually crept back into circulation, were demonetized and 

 withdrawn from circulation at the expense of the government, and 

 the bank halfpennies and pennies raised in value so as to circulate for 

 one and two cents respectively. With the introduction of the decimal 

 system and the assumption of the function of coinage by the govern- 

 ment it ceased to be necessary for the banks to import copper tokens. 



The design adopted for the obverse of the Bank of Upper Canada 

 tokens lacks any interest for Canadians, as it is simply a copy of the 

 legend of St. George and the dragon as portrayed by Pistrucci on the 

 first British sovereign struck at the Eoyal Mint in 1817, and on the 

 crown of 1819. And the reverse, which bears the obsolete arms of the 

 old Province of Upper Canada, is even less interesting, as it lacks any 

 reference to Canada or any heraldic or artistic merit. 



The letters of Thomas G. Eidont, cashier, of C. C. Trevelyan and 

 of Gljm Mills & Co.^ seem to imply that the whole of the coinage of 

 1850 and part of that of 1852 were struck at the Eoyal Mint. But the 

 initials E. H. & Co. under the dragon on the obverse are clearly those 

 of Ealph Heaton & Co., afterward Ealph Heaton & Son, mentioned in 

 connection with the Quebec Bank coinage. They have for many years 

 contracted for large coinages when " great pressure on the Eoyal Mint " 

 made it necessary to have the work done outside. These coinages, 

 many of them for Canada, bear the initial H for Heaton. The con- 

 clusion reached is, that even the first coinage for the Bank of Upper 

 Canada was sublet to Ealph Heaton & Sons, and when the pressure at 

 the mint became too great to attend even to accepting and supervising 

 this order, the agents of the bank were forced to treat with the 

 Heatons direct. This latter conclusion is borne out by the fact that 

 the coins of 1854 are illustrated in Heaton's testimonial book.^ 



' statutes of the Province of Canada, 1857, Chap. 18. 



- Appendix, Nos. 44 arid 45. ' Plate III., Nos. 7 and 8. 



