Obverse and reverse image of a typical "Habitant Token", depicting the figure of a habitant holding a whip, and the other side a bunch of heraldic flowers surrounded by the words "Concordia salus" (the motto of the Bank of Montreal) and "Bas-Canada".
The Habitant token were a series of tokens that were created for use primarily within Lower Canada and were issued in 1837. Produced as a successor to the popular bouquet sous, these tokens depicted a Habitant on the obverse, a traditional depiction of a French-Canadian farmer in winter clothing, and the coat of arms for the City of Montreal on the reverse. The tokens were issued in both one penny/deux sous and half penny/un sou denominations by the leading commercial banks of Montreal. They were issued in large numbers and can be easily acquired by the modern collector, though some varieties are rare and command a premium.
These tokens replaced the popular bouquet sous that the banks of Lower Canada had previously introduced into circulation. The Habitant tokens were known to still be in use over 60 years after they were originally issued,[1] and are known from archaeological evidence to have circulated in Upper Canada as well.[2] These tokens are classified as "semi-regal" by Canadian numismatists, as they were authorized by the colonial government.[3]
History
In 1837 the Bank of Montreal applied for permission from Britain to import copper tokens to a value of £5,000. Permission was granted, but only on the condition that the other major commercial banks of Montreal also participated.[4] The other banks agreed, and an order was placed with the minting firm Boulton and Watt[dubious–discuss], in Birmingham, to produce the tokens,[5] each containing the name of the issuing bank on a ribbon contained on the reverse of the token. The Bank of Montreal paid £2,000 for the production of these tokens, and the other three Montreal banks—City Bank of Montreal, The Quebec Bank and La Banque du Peuple— £1,000 apiece.[6] The £5,000 (paid in Sterling), was for the cost of production of the tokens, which amounted to roughly £7,700 of half pennies and pennies being produced against the Halifax rating, the money standard used in Lower Canada at the time.[7] From these figures it has been estimated that roughly 1.8 million half pennies and just over 900,000 pennies were minted.[8] The tokens arrived in Lower Canada in four separate shipments, beginning in late May 1838 and ending in late 1839.[9] While the tokens were originally intended to be struck at five-sixths of the weight of British copper coins, they were struck at full weight instead, making them more substantial than the bouquet sous they were designed to replace, and closer to their actual value in copper.[10]
Another common name for this series of tokens was the "Papineau", named after Louis-Joseph Papineau. He was the leader of the reformist Patriote movement before the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838 and was well known for wearing habitant clothing almost as uniform.[11] While including an image of an habitant as an emblem of Lower Canada was intended, it is highly unlikely that the established banks of Montreal (and particularly the politically conservative Bank of Montreal) meant their token to be identified with Papineau, with one numismatist remarking that "the connection between them and the great statesman is purely sentimental".[12]
These tokens circulated long after they were originally issued, and were alluded to in an Order in Council from the Minister of Finance in August 1870:
"while bronze cents and the Copper coins of the United Kingdom alone are legal tender, the principal Copper Currency consists of Bank tokens of the Bank of Montreal, Bank of Upper Canada, Quebec Bank & Banque du Peuple, all of which are of good quality, and all authorized by law. That these coins are only current at the rates of a half penny & a penny old Currency, while postage & other stamps are in cents. That it is essentially necessary to establish a uniform Copper Currency, and after much consideration he is of opinion that if the Government would instruct its Departments to receive the Bank tokens at one and two Cents respectively, the public would do so likewise, and by this means a great deal of the inconvenience would be removed."[13]
The following year (1871) the Uniform Currency Act received royal assent, which set the denominations for Canadian currency officially against a decimal-based dollar.[14]
Later Production of Muled Varieties
In 1850, London engraver W.J. Taylor purchased a number of coining tools and dies from the Soho Mint, where the original Habitant tokens (along with many subsequent Lower Canadian issues) had been created. He started to create a number of restrikes of coins using the original dies. All of the varieties he produced were mules, containing the reverse from one coin design matched with the obverse of another. He is known to have created mules using the reverse of the 1837 Habitant token and the obverse of the later "Front View" Bank of Montreal penny from 1842 in copper, brass, and silver.[15]
Design
Detail of an image of an "habitant" on the back of a Banque Canadienne One Dollar bill from the early 19th century.
The design for the Habitant on the obverse of the coin was designed by James Duncan,[16] and was originally used on the back of a Banque Canadienne one dollar bill, the design engraved by Rawden, Wright and Hatch of New York.[17] The image depicts the Habitant wearing traditional winter clothing, including a touque, a hooded frock coat, moccasins, and a "ceinture flechee" sash.[18] He also holds a whip in his right hand.[19] Above him is the legend "PROVINCE DU BAS CANADA" and the value, either "UN SOU" or "DEUX SOUS", below.
First coat of arms (1833) for the City of Montreal
The reverse features the original design of the coat of arms for the city of Montreal, as designed by Mayor Jacques Viger and the city council in 1833. A large Saint Andrew's Cross divides the shield into four segments, and in each of these spaces a heraldic symbol representing different settler populations: at top, a rose for the English heritage of the population, a thistle for the Scots, a sprig of clover to represent the Irish, and at bottom a beaver for the French that originally settled the territory and traded in furs. The motto surrounding the shield says "CONCORDIA SALUS", a Latin phrase meaning "salvation through harmony", which is the motto of the city of Montreal and of the Bank of Montreal as well.[20] A ribbon bearing the name of the issuing bank appears on a ribbon that flows across the base of the coat of arms.[21] The words "BANK TOKEN" appears at the top, "HALF PENNY or "ONE PENNY" at the bottom, along with the issue date of 1837.
Numismatic Study
Early Canadian numismatist Pierre-Napoléon Breton illustrates both the half penny and penny varieties of these tokens in his book Illustrated History of Coins and Tokens Relating to Canada, originally published in 1890.[22] Despite the fact that there were four varieties of each type of token based on the bank they were issued from, Breton gave the number 521 to all of the pennies, and 522 to all of the half pennies.[23] At least one later catalog appends letters to Breton's numbering (i.e. 521, 521a, 521b, and 521c) to represent tokens from each of the banks.[24]
The first detailed study of the series and its variants was The Habitant Tokens of Lower Canada (Province of Quebec) written by Canadian numismatist Eugene Courteau, published in 1927. He grouped varieties of the half penny according to whether the right serif of the letter V in PROVINCE was at the same level as that of the following letter I, or whether it was lower.[25] For the pennies Courteau grouped them two groups, based on whether the patch of ground the habitant was standing on was large or small.[26] A sub-group of these included a period that sometimes appeared after the word CANADA.[27] He described over 60 distinct varieties of the habitant half penny, and over 50 varieties of the pennies. More modern catalogs tend to be more conservative in assigning distinct varieties than Courteau, with one listing only 9 major varieties of the half pennies, and 13 for the pennies.[28]
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Blacksmith tokens are a form of evasion currency that was in circulation primarily in Lower Canada and Upper Canada along with neighboring areas, such as the northern parts of New York and New England in the mid-1820 to 1830s. They were not, strictly speaking counterfeits, but instead skirted around the laws of the time by being similar to officially circulating coinage, but bearing different legends, or bearing no legends or dates at all, so it could not be claimed that they were truly imitating circulating coinage fully. The tokens were designed to resemble worn examples of English or Irish copper coinage, most often with a crude profile of either George II or George III in profile on the obverse and an image of Britannia or an Irish harp on the reverse. They were typically underweight when compared to officially sanctioned halfpenny coinage, but were accepted along with many other unofficially issued tokens due to a lack of sufficient small denomination coinage in circulation at the time.
Bouquet sou were a series of tokens that were created for use primarily within Lower Canada in the mid- to late-1830s. Roughly equivalent in value to a half penny, the "bouquet sou" were so called because they displayed a group of heraldic flowers tied together with a ribbon on their obverse. The group of flowers were encircled by one of several legends, which might say "Trade & Agriculture / Lower Canada", "Agriculture & Commerce / Bas Canada" or some variant of these that might also substitute the name of the issuing bank. The other side most typically gave the denomination of "un sou", surrounded by a wreath and the words "Bank Token" and "Montreal". There are a large variety of these tokens, distinguished primarily by the number and variety of flowers that appear in the "bouquet", along with the differences in the legends that appeared on either side of the token. They were initially issued by the banks of Lower Canada, and were later imitated by speculators who produced tokens that looked similar, but were underweight for their denomination. These coins also circulated to Upper Canada, as at least one archeology dig attests. Large numbers of these tokens were produced and many examples can easily be obtained for only a few Canadian dollars, though a few rare varieties can command significantly higher prices.
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The Vexator Canadiensis tokens are thought to be politically satirical tokens produced in either Quebec City or Montreal sometime in the 1830s. The tokens present a very crude image of a vaguely male bust on their obverse, and a female figure on the reverse. The legends on either side were deliberately designed so that they are hard to definitively read, but are commonly known as the "vexators" based on a common interpretation of its obverse legend. Depending on the interpretation of the inscriptions, they can either be taken as a form of satirical protest against either an unpopular Upper Canada governor, or William IV as a "tormentor of Canada", or more simply, depicting a fur trapper. Since all of these interpretations are possible, the ambiguity would allow the issuer from escaping being cited for sedition.
The Bust and Harp tokens were tokens originally issued anonymously in the mid-1820s, and circulated primarily in Lower Canada. Due to their anonymous nature, it is not known who placed the order for the original tokens, but they are believed to have been minted in England beginning in 1825. The initial release of the tokens was dated 1825, but a currency regulation issued that same year made the importation of privately issued tokens illegal. As a result, the initial issue was altered and all subsequent issues of these tokens were antedated to 1820 in order to get around this prohibition, which did not prohibit tokens made before this date. They were circulated in large quantities and were widely imitated by minters located in Canada, making for many varieties. Those of particularly poor craftsmanship are considered examples of Blacksmith tokens. They were roughly the size of a contemporaneous half-penny, though generally weighed less. They were widely circulated in Lower Canada for at least 30 years, after which banks began to refuse them as payment except by weight. The more common Bust and Harp tokens can be had for about a few tens of C$, though rarer varieties can command prices in the thousands of dollars.
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