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Vol. 9, No. 4 March, 2010
"A New Coin Press"
Above: La Banque Nationale, $100, Oct. 2, 1871 . Founded in Quebec City in 1860, La Banque Nationale merged with La Banque d'Hochelaga in 1924 to form La Banque Canadienne Nationale, which in turn merged with La Banque Provinciale du Canada to form the National Bank of Canada in 1979. The above note is known only in redeemed and cancelled state.
The Mid-Island Coin Club, Dues: $12 per year Mailing Address: Mid-Island Coin Club, c/o West Coast Stamp & Coin, Executive Officers: President: Felix Stawski
With this meeting and issue of the Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal , we have reached a couple of milestones. On December 11, 2001, our club held its founding meeting, making that of March, 2010, our 100th meeting since "founding" (101st since the "exploratory" and 99th "general" meeting" - take your pick). At another meeting held less than a month previously, exploring the feasibility of a coin club in this area, the question of a club newsletter was also advanced and, accordingly, the founding meeting also saw the appearance of a "Preliminary Issue" of our Journal . Therefore, counting this "preliminary" number, the one you now hold in your hands is also our 100th issue . At this rate, the 1000 milestone of both meeting and issues will not occur until the year 2085 and I give full warning: I'm retiring before then. We have a treat this month: our guest speaker will be Chief Petty Officer Randy Scott, RCN, Comox, who will give a presentation entitled "Tokens and Medallions of the Canadian Navy's Pacific Fleet". Dontchamissit. A reminder: The auction catalogue for George Manz's Auction #8 (April 17) is now on line and can be downloaded at: www.georgemanzcoins.com if you have the more recent version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If not, a free version may be downloaded at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html Have a look. Unhappily, we have to note another empty chair at our club with the passing of longtime member Bert Bates on February 5. Until the last few months, Bert was a steady attendee at our meetings and a noted collector of Trade Dollars as well as all those other unusual pieces that we lump under "exonumia". He will be greatly missed.
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George Manz Coins & Auctions presents "Auction # 8".
The Regina Coin Club's spring show will be the venue for the eighth in a series of auctions by George Manz Coins & Auctions. World coin highlights include a complete 1820 British Maundy Money set with exceptional toning on both sides. The four coins are housed in a red Maundy Money case and carry an estimate of $500. Lot 12, an East India Company 1808 10 cash salvaged from the wreck of the Admiral Gardner , is also on offer with an estimate of $50. Canadian decimal coins include an 1897 1-Cent graded MS-63 by ICCS, a 1901 5-Cents graded MS-62 by ICCS, and a 1937 Specimen 5-Cents graded SP-64 Mirror, Cameo by ICCS. Among the rarities at auction is a 1906 Small Crown 25-Cents graded G-4, one of only 58 certified by ICCS. Lot 93, a 1935 silver dollar stamped by Joseph Oliva Patenaude, a jeweler from Nelson, B.C., is also on the block, this one bearing his incuse initials only, with no periods. It is one of only a few that were counterstamped on an angle. Graded EF-40 by ICCS, the coin is estimated to fetch $600. Errors are led by a British undated Queen Victoria 3-Pence with an obverse mirror brockage resulting from the first strike of a capped die. The incused (sunken) image of the queen on the reverse has the exact same die crack as on the obverse. The rarity is expected to realize $500. Hudson's Bay Company tokens include a complete set of six 1946 Eastern Arctic tokens, including the square 1 White Fox as well as a short set of two HBC tokens from the now famous South Dakota Hoard. The newly-discovered tokens have been written about in recent issues of Canadian Coin News . Commemorative medals include two huge 77mm British rarities, including the 1862 Britannia Prize Medal and the 1855 Sardinia medal, one of only 350 struck. ANA badges from 1958 to 1970 issued to Roy Miller should see spirited bidding. Canadian paper money is led by a 1954 Modified Portrait Million Numbered Note with the serial number H/Y 1000000. One of the highlights of the auction is a large number of books from the personal collection of Daniel Gosling, President of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association. This eclectic auction also includes ancient coins, Lasqueti Mint products, pre-Confederation tokens, trade dollars, sports medals, an NDP Founding Convention badge and medal from 1961, merchants' scrip, military medals and two coin T-shirts. The auction will take place at the Regina Coin Club's spring show on Saturday April 17 at the Western Christian College gym in Regina . Those wishing to receive the auction catalogue by e-mail should send their e-mail address to George Manz at george@georgemanzcoins.com . The catalogue can also be viewed at www.georgemanzcoins.com . There is no buyer's fee in this auction.
********** The Saga of Sam Zimmerman.
In 1842, a young man arrived in the village of Elgin , Upper Canada . He was Sam Zimmerman, 27 years old, a native of Huntingdon County , Pennsylvania . Sam arrived with a horse and buggy, a decent suit of clothes and little else in the way of material worth. But, like many rags-to-riches stories of the rich and famous, there is a hole in his story as well. We only know that within a year, he owned his own construction firm in St. Catherines and a government contract to build a section of the Welland Canal . Within the next couple of years he won three more large contracts for the same project which made him a rich man - rich enough to buy the posh Clifton House Hotel at Niagara Falls in 1848 and refurbish it, even to installing a $15,000 fountain.
The secret to Sam's success was due in large part to his unexplainable clout with the rich and famous from the very first, one of whom was Francis Hincks, "Inspector General" (Finance Minister) of Upper Canada after 1848 and head of the ministry (premier) in 1851. Two pieces of legislation affected Zimmerman: an act of 1849 whereby the province would guarantee half the interest on loans for railroads constructed of 120 miles or more in length (beefed up in 1851 with the "Municipal Loans Act" whereby the province itself would be the lender to municipalities for approved railroad projects) and Hincks' "Free Banking Act" (1850) that allowed unchartered banks - subject to approval and restrictions. Hincks was caught with his hand in the cookie jar for accepting $40,000 in shares from the Grand Trunk Railway to "expedite matters" and resigned in September, 1854. For the next sixteen years, he was absent from Canada , serving first as governor of Bermuda and then British Guiana . In 1870, he was invited to return by his former political opponent, Sir John A. Macdonald, to serve as the third Finance Minister of the Dominion of Canada. By the early 1850s, Upper Canada was in a railroad-building frenzy, lines springing up all over the place. Some "proposed" lines were nothing more than scams, intended to send the right-of-way land values soaring and fuel the sale of stock, after which the "principals" decamped. Others were more solid and none profited more than Zimmerman. He built the lines Coburg - Peterborough , Woodstock - Lake Erie and Port Hope - Beaverton . It soon became common knowledge that when Zimmerman & Co. were named contractors, both the approval of the railroad charter and its funding were practically assured; otherwise, not so much. The principals behind the big Grand Trunk Railway gave Zimmerman one-third interest in their contract in return for his "assistance", and for expediting the charter and funding approval of the "Toronto & Hamilton Railway", he was paid $40,000 outright. Zimmerman & Co. also built parts of the Grand Trunk line - and shoddy work it was by nearly all the contractors. It says something that in its first year of operation, 1854, the 320-km line was subject to no fewer than 17 accidents involving loss of life as railbeds slumped, culverts collapsed, rails separated and cuts slid. In nearly every case, investigation proved shoddy workmanship to be the cause. But it wasn't hard to ignore specs and build on the cheap; the chief engineer - the man whose job it was the approve work as satisfactory - was Roswell T. Benedict, Sam's friend from the Welland projects. His rubberstamping "approvals" of Sam's- and others' - work became a scandal. It was also Sam's inside knowledge through such friends and colleagues that gave him the information as to exactly where the Roebling Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls would cross - and that it would be built. It was this information that caused Sam to buy the Clifton House Hotel (and about 100 nearby acres as well) from which he profited enormously, his Hotel becoming something of the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway at the Falls on the Canadian side. Sam outdid himself in the department of shoddy construction with the Rice Lake Bridge , 5 km long, on the Coburg & Peterborough Railway. "No problem", Sam said and on 29 December 1854 he handed over the line, bridge and all, for which Coburg had borrowed $400,000 from the provincial fund. Unfortunately, when the ice went out, the bridge was found to be unfinished, a lot of the cribwork unfilled. A further $80,000 was required in "patchwork" but the bridge caused continual trouble and finally, in 1862, simply floated away. By 1856, Sam was on his way to his largest project yet, his own "Great Southern Railway" which would skirt Lake Erie and be a shortcut for American goods travelling between Detroit and Buffalo . There was great opposition to the plan but Sam greased the usual palms and it went forward. All except for one small fly in the ointment in the person of John McLeod, president of one of the small railroads at Amherstburg, that Sam needed to amalgamate into his larger scheme. McLeod was one of those rarities to Sam: a man who could say "No" to him. Although Sam offered McLeod to "name his price", (even to $45,000 and a piece of the action) McLeod refused to sell out his stockholders. Worse, McLeod filed a statement against Sam in Toronto court next March, and should facts come out, Sam's whole Great Southern Railway would be jeopardized.
The Desjardins Canal Railway Disaster, 12 March 1857
Fate took a hand. At 5:45 p.m. , 12 March 1857 , Sam was returning home by train from Toronto and as the locomotive approached the wooden Desjardins Canal Bridge near Hamilton , its axle snapped, dragging over the ties. Before the engineer could stop the train, the axle had torn up the bed and collapsed the bridge, sending locomotive and all the cars to the frozen canal below. Of approximately 90 aboard, over 70 were killed - including Sam Zimmerman. He was 42. Subsequent investigation showed the cause to be shoddy workmanship - specified (and paid-for) oak beams had been substituted by weaker and cheaper pine. The report stated that the bridge had been "unsound, impaired and dangerous". Writers are divided as to whether Sam himself did or did not build the bridge but, being the king of the shoddy builders himself, there is a certain poetic justice. With Sam's death, nearly all his empire (which included lake steamers, foundries and real estate he valued at $3-million) dissipated. The Great Southern was never built, his bank closed and a recession wiped out much of the paper value of one of the (perhaps the ) richest men in Canada . But, until then, he hadn't done bad for a penniless man in 15 years.
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As collectors, we are most interested in the notes of Sam's own bank, the Zimmerman Bank. This bank was established 11 October 1854 when final approval was given by the government under the terms of the Free Banking Act of 1850, a Hincks initiative. These banks were not chartered but modelled after the commercial laws of New York . No branches were allowed and the total bank note issue was limited to the amount of government debentures (paying 6% annually) purchased by that bank. Even the printing plates were held by the government, although paid for by the bank and any new issue had the printing overseen by the government and shipped to the bank where the final authorizations were applied by hand. In this case, £25,000 local currency - or $100,000 - had been purchased as debentures. Actually, Hincks was finding a ready sale for his debentures rather than filling any crying need for banking by the public. The Zimmerman Bank used its note-issuing privileges to the full: after buying another $60,000 in debentures ( 14 September 1855 ), the total amount of notes issued on the return of 31 December that year stood at $162,980 including replacements.
Zimmerman Bank, $5 "Free Issue". Issued: Elgin , Hand-dated 1st Oct. 1855 . Black print, no protector, uniface.
These notes of the "free" Zimmerman Bank were in five denominations ($1, $3, $5, $10 and $20) and printed using two plates. Showing the plate numbers they were: $1(A)-$1(B)-$3(A)-$5(C) and $5(A)-$5(B)-$10(A)-$20(A). The notes were printed by "Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co., Montreal " (later to become part of the American Bank Note Company) and all were printed in black with no tint or "protectors". The main vignette on all the notes was a view of Roebling Suspension Bridge at Niagara with Zimmerman's Clifton House high on the hill, even in later years after the Zimmerman Bank had morphed into the Bank of Clifton. Notes of this first issue were all dated at Elgin with "SECURED BY DEPOSIT OF PROVINCIAL SECURITIES" at the bottom. All notes are uniface and today the $1 and $5 are considered very scarce, the $3, $10 and $20 apparently unknown as issued notes although proofs exist of all denominations save the $5. Dates noted range from 2 November 1854 to 1 October 1855 . *
The free-banking scheme didn't work too well, few bankers being willing to settle for a mere 6% on their initial investment. With Hincks gone, his successor, William Cayley, had considerable pressure applied to "loosen" money in Upper Canada , the better to fuel the speculative frenzy then occurring in the province. With not nearly the clout of Hincks, Cayley acquiesced in a return to the old chartered system, albeit under greatly relaxed rules. Nearly any group of men who could induce an MPP to front for them in return for a block of bank stock could apply for - and probably receive - a bank charter. There were snorts of charters being received by men "scarcely able to pay their tailors' bill" and, in fact, many such charters received under these liberalized, virtually reckless, rules did indeed end badly. Zimmerman, of course, immediately applied for an upgrade to full charter status. When chartered, the Zimmerman Bank would be allowed branches and gain full control of its printing plates but, best of all, its worth would immediately be multiplied by a factor of 5. Chartered banks had only to retain "hard currency" (debentures, coin etc) in their own vaults to the extent of 20% face value of issued bank notes in order that such notes be deemed "fully backed" under the law. Government "control" would consist of the bank's annual returns and the odd visit of an inspector (which wouldn't worry Sam). Consequently, the Zimmerman chartered bank notes were used to redeem the former "free" notes, submit them to the government for the return of the debentures face-for-face and use them to issue five times face in chartered bank notes. Zimmerman applied for his charter in very late 1855 and apparently started to operate as a chartered bank about 1 June 1856 . Authorized capital was set at $1,000,000 divided into 10,000 shares of which Sam personally owned 9,820, the rest divided among seven men - some of them his wife's relatives - who held the minimum number required by law to act as bank officers. It was very much Sam's personal bank. By the December returns for 1856, Sam had $440,000 in notes circulating, most of them chartered, with few of the older "free" notes still outstanding. In most respects, Sam's first chartered notes were the same as the "free" issue (still issued in Elgin ), except that they read "CAPITAL ONE MILLION DOLLARS" at the bottom. There was another difference: the appearance of "protectors" to foil counterfeiting. These took two forms: as "word protectors" where the denomination was spelled out on the back and front ("ONE", "THREE" etc) and as "number protectors" , also on both face and back ("1", "3" etc). The numerals on the $1, $3 and $5 were always in a reclining position, whereas the $10 and $20 were upright. In addition, either or both could appear as "straight" or in mirror image on the back, always coinciding with its position on the face. The protectors are known in both red and blue.
Zimmerman Bank, $1, as chartered bank at Elgin Red "word protector" face and back, "straight" ONE on back
Zimmerman Bank, $3, as chartered bank at Elgin Red reclining "numeral protector" face and back, mirror image on back.
The final issue of the Zimmerman Bank was occasioned by the changing of the name Elgin to Clifton (later Niagara Falls , Ont.). Again, the notes are very similar to the previous issue except for the new place name, the fact that all were now printed black on blue-tinted paper (instead of plain) and that their serial numbers were now machine-printed in red. Word protectors appear on all denominations, always in red and always in mirror image on the back.
Zimmerman Bank, $20 as chartered bank at Clifton . Black on blue tint. Red protector face and back, mirror image back. Printed serial numbers.
Considering the short length of time the Zimmerman Bank was in existence, a complete note collection is very large, especially with all the variations in protector types, colours, and arrangements. Except for the early "free" issue, Zimmerman Bank notes are fairly common but students of the series feel that very few are legitimately issued, that most are remainders fraudulently signed, numbered, dated &c.
Zimmerman Bank, $10 "remainder", chartered bank at Elgin Upright numeral protector face and back, mirror image back.
With Sam's death, the executors of the Bank seemed determined to wind up its business rapidly. Few or no loans were made after April 1857 and the return of October that year show only $34,000 in notes still outstanding, well under 1/10th of that in the spring. In early 1858, the Zimmerman Bank arranged with the Bank of Upper Canada to take over the redemption of the remaining notes, then standing at only $5400, in return for the debentures still held by the government. It soon turned out to be a "poison pill" for the latter bank as a flood of notes were presented for redemption, much greater than the amount outstanding. It was, of course, a fraud attempt being perpetrated, but almost certainly not by the Zimmerman Bank. On 16 August 1858 , the Zimmerman Bank received approval to have the name in its charter changed to the Bank of Clifton and for a very short time, the same former officers were in charge. But shortly, all the stock and printing plates were sold to Hubbard & Co. of Chicago who were probably acting as agents for a couple of shady American characters, Callaway and Reed, the latter the former owner of the International Bank of Canada at its recent collapse. It's pretty obvious that their purpose was merely to "hang wallpaper" in the U.S., only enough funds kept on hand in Chicago to allow their notes to be listed in the Bank Note Reporter publications as "redeemable". They rarely were. The "main office" in Clifton was closed for long periods of time and it may be that no Bank of Clifton notes were redeemed there. In addition, since they owned the plates, we may be suspicious that the "remainders" of the Zimmerman Bank were printed especially for them after there was no such bank, but whose notes were still being redeemed. We may be sure that the Bank of Upper Canada would not honour any note of which they were suspicious and may have extended to all Zimmerman notes, the loss falling on the holder.
Bank of Clifton, $3, with " Ottawa , Ill. " overprint Red word protector face and back, mirror back
The Bank of Clifton notes were very similar to the final issue of the Zimmerman Bank except for the name change. According to the imprint, they were printed by the American Bank Note Company, New York and all denominations are black with no underlying tint. All have red "word" protectors, face and back, that on the back mirror image. There may be a black overprint " OTTAWA , ILL. " with 13-14 stars. All are engrave-dated Oct. 1st, 1859 . Only $1, $3 and $5 denominations were issued for this series. In the next year or so, another issue was made by this bank, the notes of lesser quality. Issued in $1, $2 and $5 denominations, they were printed by the "New York Bank Note Co., 50 Wall St ." All are black over a red tint and all show St. George and the Dragon, a very "Upper Canadian" design. They are dated Sept. 1, 1860 , Sept. 1, 1860/1 and Sept. 1, 1861 . All are relatively common.
Bank of Clifton, $5, 1860/1 Black on red tint. Uniface All three denominations were similar.
At no time did the Bank of Clifton fulfill the terms of its charter but even so, Canada was slow in acting. Finally on 15 October 1863 its charter was repealed - at the same time as those of the Western, Colonial and International banks. Thus faded the Zimmerman Bank and its less-than-respectable offspring. ************************************************************************
O Canada ! Anthem and Coin.
On July 1, 1980 , the "national song" "O Canada!" was made our official national anthem by Act of Parliament and in the next year, a commemorative gold $100 coin was struck in its honour. Actually, 1980 was also the centennial of the song itself.
"O Canada!" was commissioned for the occasion of the official visit to Quebec in 1880 of the Governor General, the Marquess of Lorne, and his wife, H.R.H. Princess Louise. The words, in French, were written by the Hon. Sir Adolphe Routhier (1839-1920), sometime chief justice of Quebec . The music was written by Calixa Laval é e (1842-91), a native of Verchères, who had an extensive musical background and who, in a reputed burst of inspiration, wrote it in a single evening. The stirring music was intended to be first performed at an open-air Mass on the Plains of Abraham, but when rumour spread that this might not be so, friends of Laval é e hastily assembled a band of a hundred trumpets and brass, and "O Canada!" was first played at the Skating Pavilion in Quebec a day sooner. Then at the Mass as well. It became an immediate hit in French-speaking Canada , it's original leading lines being: "O Canada ! terre de nous aïeux. Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux." It also became a favourite in English-speaking Canada , where some twenty versions - the words adaptations rather than translations - were current. The version that became most famous (changed slightly in recent years) was that written in 1908 by the Hon. R. Stanley Weir (1856-1926), recorder of Montreal and sometime judge of the Exchequer Court of Canada, on the occasion of the tercentenary of Quebec .
Opening lines of the Weir songsheet, 1908.
"O Canada !", in its French version, remained the "chant national" of French Canada. In English-speaking Canada , the song competed with "The Maple Leaf Forever" (written in 1867 by Alexander Muir) but the latter, with its heavy pro-British bias, slowly lost ground in popularity throughout the first half of the 20th Century. In May, 1964, at the same time as Canada adopted her own flag, there was a "rider" resolution on the floor making "O Canada!" her official national anthem, but it was not acted upon at that time. Sixteen years later, it was officially adopted. It was in 1981 that the Royal Canadian Mint issued the gold $100 "collectors' coin" in commemoration of the event from the previous year. It was also at a time when the Mint was experimenting with various finishes for their coins and this one had its own Test Token struck.
Test token, gold proof, 27mm, for the music bars on the $100 reverse. Polished notes on a frosted background.
Lt: Adopted obverse. Center: Discarded reverse. Rt: Adopted reverse The specifications of this issue were as the others back to 1977: struck in .9167 fine gold, weighing 16.965 grams with a diameter of 27mm. Reeded edge, upright (or medal) reverse. Proof finish. Mintage: 100,950. Issue price: $300 As usual, the obverse is by the RCM staff using the Machin portrait of the Queen. The reverse was designed by Roger Savage and modelled by Walter Ott. The issue was already in the process of being struck when advance photographs examined by those versed in music caused them to be appalled. The musical stave carrying the so-called opening notes of the anthem were so much gibberish: no clef, key signature, or indications of timing or measure. A storm of protest was directed at the mint who hurriedly scuttled the offending reverse, replacing it with another which addressed all the former's shortcomings. (Actually, the four notes are the same as the famous whistle of the Expo Train sounded in 1967). A fair number of the coins with the incorrect reverse had already been struck; these were all melted except for (we believe) two which are now in the National Collection. Of course, the words to the anthem may yet again be changed slightly. One Royal Canadian Air Farce skit had the words progressively changed to become absolutely politically correct, inclusive of everyone and not remotely offensive to any. The anthem wound up being hummed.
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New Coin Press.
Medal released at the Great Exhibition held in London , 1851, commemorating the new coining press invented by D. Uhlhorn in 1817 and now much improved. Known as a "knuckle-press", its descendants are what we use today.
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March 2010
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