58 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Rope Walk, which developed into the Canada Cordage Company. 

 A fourth that of Francis MuUins and Son represents a firm that never 

 existed. It was struck in anticipation that the son should be ad- 

 mitted into partnership, which, owing to some hitch, never came to 

 pass. 



In 1837, through an ordinance, passed by the special Council, the 

 four banks doing business in Lower Canada were authorized to issue 

 regular bank tokens. As these bore the figure of a French Canadian 

 farmer on the obverse, they are known as the "habitant" tokens. 

 They came to be recognised and accepted as a regular provincial 

 coinage. In 1838, the Bank of Montreal alone, ordered a second 

 coinage; but this was rejected, and therefore never put into circu- 

 lation, as well as was a coinage struck in 1839 because, as the Manager 

 claimed, of their lack of artistic merit. 



After the union of Upper and Lower Canada, coinages were 

 struck, under the permission of the Government, by the Bank of 

 Montreal, in 1842 and 1844, by the Quebec Bank, in 1852, and by the 

 Bank of Upper Canada in 1850, 1852, 1854 and 1857. 



It may be well here to mention the coinage proposed for British 

 Columbia during the gold fever of 1862. The Province, then separate 

 from Vancouver Island, was a crown colony, with the executive ap- 

 pointed by the Home Government. The Provincial Treasurer, 

 Captain (afterwards General) Gossitt, who was a man of numismatic 

 tastes, conceived the idea of establishing a mint, and coining the gold 

 as it came from the mine, rather than have it exported in the crude 

 state. He therefore ordered a complete outfit of coining machinery, 

 and had dies prepared for twenty and ten dollar pieces, by a die 

 sinker named Kuner of San Francisco. This man had made the dies 

 for many of the private gold coins that circulated in the Western 

 territories of the United States, from 1849 to 1860. Now, just as he 

 was ready to proceed, he received word from the Colonial office that, 

 as coining was a prerogative of the crown, he must stop all further 

 proceedings. "But," as the Provincial Secretary wrote, in 1883, 

 "Captain Gossitt, determined to have sample coins struck, brought 

 the work to completion" and further "I well remember meeting him 

 immediately after he had achieved his object. He had the coins in his 

 hand jingling and admiring them as a child would a new and very 

 attractive toy." 



Five or six of each of these coins were struck, one set of which he 

 kept for his own collecion, one he presented to the British Museum 

 and the others to friends in British Columbia, 



The Beaver skin currency for trading with the Indians was first 

 introduced in 1820 by the North West Company. These were simply 



