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| Irish Money in Colonial Canada : Evidence.
On 21 February 1839 , the Special Council of the Government of Lower Canada ( Quebec ) passed "An Ordinance to prevent the fraudulent manufacture, importation or circulation of Spurious Copper and Brass Coin" (2 Vict. cap. 5), limiting the authorized circulating copper coin to "Copper Coin of .. Great Britain and Ireland ", "Tokens of some one of the Chartered Banks of this Province (i.e., the "Habitant" tokens), " Banque du Peuple " (almost certainly Br-715), and "American Cents". In early March, such local newspapers as le Canadien noted that actually this list extended to include the "Thistle" tokens of Nova Scotia, the 1- and ½ -stiver of "Demerary & Essequibo" (later British Guiana but whose copper coins were extensively imported and used in New Brunswick) and the old, heavy British copper tokens (the better ones usually dated 1812-14).
What should be particularly noted is the inclusion of copper coin of Ireland , when that island had had no such indigenous coin since 1825, the year in which the Irish pound was rolled into sterling and eliminated. Obviously there was enough still around in Lower Canada some 14 years later as to warrant its inclusion in a currency law.
Like Britain , Ireland experienced a dearth of good copper coin before 1805/6 - but the dearth became a deluge at that point. The issue was struck at the Soho Mint, Birmingham , and consisted of: 4,595,520 farthings (dated 1806); 45,756,960 halfpennies (1805); and 7,920,720 pennies (1805). All these for a population of a mere 4 ½ -million souls of a mostly agrarian society. Then, probably just as a make-work project for the Royal Mint, a further £42,800 in pennies and halfpennies dated 1822 and '23 were struck; the exact breakdown remains unknown, but it was the equivalent of 20,544,000 halfpennies. We have excellent evidence that Ireland was snowed under with regal copper coin: in 1825 - just two years after this last issue - the Irish pound was converted to sterling at the rate of £13 Irish = £12 sterling and her copper coins called in. Almost at once a total of £53,058 was received, an amount roughly 25% larger than the total recent issue of 1822/3. Obviously, Ireland had been awash in regal copper; obviously merchants and others with hoards of these things on their hands were pleased to exchange them at the rate of 13d Irish for a silver shilling; obviously, there was never a shortage of copper coin after 1806. So how come there were other copper coins in the form of merchants' tokens? Lots of them. In many different series.
Why? For exactly the same reason as copper tokens appeared in England and Scotland at a time when circulation was literally awash in regal copper coin. The giant British copper issue of 1806/7 totalled 24,192,000 pennies; 137,894,000 halfpennies and 4,838,400 farthings; Britain did not again feel the necessity to issue more regal copper until 1825 when an issue of farthings appeared - perhaps as make-work for the Royal Mint, perhaps to accommodate the conversion of Irish copper to sterling in that year.
Despite the lack of need , there was good money to be made in issuing private tokens to a "captive audience". The "audience" would be in the form of a significant number of employees whose pay packets would be made up in large part of the owner's tokens on a "take it or go without" basis. In other words, they were "forced issues". And of course such coin did not cost nearly face to have manufactured. Some years later, the cost to a customer for such an issue by Heaton's and the Royal Mint was copper cost plus 10% face for all else. During the period 1813-18, the wholesale price of copper was about £125 sterling per "Avoirdupois" or "Long Ton" (2240 pounds) and regal Irish copper coin was struck at the weight of 26d to the pound weight - although private tokens might be somewhat lighter without anyone noticing. But even at full weight, a total of 58,240 pennies would be coined from a ton with a face value of £242. 8s Irish; allowing 10% for coining fee plus the cost of copper, the profit per ton would be in the order of £93.4s.9 ½ d - or close to 38% immediate profit to the issuer.
But full weight was rarely intended when tokens light by a reasonable amount passed with equal ease and to greater profit for the issuer. Weighing an actual penny of Edward Stephens dated 1816, and allowing a generous 4% for wear, we know that in this particular instance Stephens was not issuing his pieces at the "26 pence to the pound" standard of regal Irish coppers but rather at no more than 30 ½ d to the pound, dropping the cost-per-coin to something like 55% face.
And a "gray zone" in the coinage laws at the time made this legal - so long as the issuer was named on the coin and stood ready to redeem them. But redemption was not in the issuers' cards and there was a way around this: they would be redeemed in quantities of £1 by a bank note. Few workmen would ever accumulate a quantity of 240 pennies or 480 halfpennies or 960 farthings and even if they did, the pound note was of less use to them than the copper tokens. So not much redemption was done - or intended - until specifically ordered by the government for any quantity. For Britain in general, this was ordered in 1817, presumably encompassing Ireland as well - but starting in 1818, even more Irish tokens appeared. Generally speaking these were much the same in appearance as before, the difference being the lack of an issuing party, and thus "anonymous". Such pieces would be considered illegal in Ireland but there was obviously a "market" for them somewhere and the most likely destination would be Canada , specifically Lower Canada .
Canada in general had always been short of coin but the true need for such major supplies seems to have arisen only with the outbreak of the War of 1812 and its resultant cash economy. The first to address this need appears to have been the Halifax merchants with their tokens dating from 1814. But even while there was a need, British regal copper coin had a difficult time "sticking", while the Irish didn't. This was especially true during the period after Napoleon was put down in 1815 and the seas free from French and American privateers.
At the time, most of Canada was using "Halifax Currency", the "Pound" of which was worth 9/10th sterling - or to put it another way (as did the Canadians), sterling was worth 1/9th more (or about 11%). For British gold and silver coin, they could circulate at the increased " Halifax " values since there was room to do so. But British pennies and halfpennies could only be rounded down to their corresponding Halifax values. Whoever received them as sterling and tried to pass them took a loss of 10% - and this was usually British soldiers stationed in Canada . While by ones and twos such coin might actually circulate, merchants, exchange houses, banks and the like habitually cherrypicked such coin and when the quantity warranted, shipped it back to England for its full sterling value.
In the present day of high shipping costs, we might marvel at the modest rates in play during the few decades after Waterloo . The premium of bills of exchange usually hovered around 3% (the equivalent of presentday commissions on money orders). But shipping rates then were such that British gold coin could be sent there - insured - for much much less than 3%; silver for much less; and (perhaps unbelievably) so could British copper coin in quantity although the "11% profit" was only a few per cent more than shipping. So the shipping of actual coin was preferred over bills of exchange by those remitting funds to Britain - and Canada habitually ran a deficit in this regard. Things were quite different for Irish copper coin - and there was no Irish silver after the war. They were using British coin at 13d per shilling. Because the Irish pound was worth but 12/13th sterling, the copper coin could not be shipped back except at a slight loss - even though it, too, was reduced to Halifax Currency levels when first passed. For those in the know, this could be a source of profit.
Some Irish regal copper probably did arrive but at a slight loss with the first Canadian transaction, we have to believe that "Irish coin" tended to be tokens of her merchants. We should note that there are practically no English and Scottish tokens after 1817, the date at which they were outlawed in Britain , but there are many Irish ones up to and including 1822 although "anonymous" from 1818 onward. So we can pursue "probabilities". During the period 1813-18, there are two main "named" series: those of Edward Stephens and those of Edward Bewley. The Stephens tokens are all pennies, something we might wonder at until we consider that it was cheaper to have struck a single penny than two halfpennies. Practically all of them show Ireland 's current favourite son, Wellington , on the obverse with the legend WELLINGTON & ERIN GO BRAGH ("Wellington & Ireland Forever") while all reverses show the Irish harp with Stephens' name above and the date below. In 1818, there occurs a sort of link: an obverse showing the Prince Regent with the legend LUKE XX: CHAP. XXV: VER ("...and He said unto them 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" with E. STEPHENS in small letters below. The reverse shows a crowned harp with IRELAND above, 1818. In the same year appeared an anonymous penny showing George III with the same legend, same reverse but lacking Stephens' name.
Lt. & Ctr.: Stephens penny, 1818 with the Regent obverse. Rt.: Anonymous penny, 1818 with the bust of George III. Both tokens share the same reverse. Edward Stephens was a major "corn factor" in Dublin , meaning that he was an importer and wholesale distributor of wheat. His source of grain could only be one: Canada . Specifically the port of Montreal . With the striking of his first Wellington tokens in 1813, Britain was at war with the U.S. At the time wheat was one of Lower Canada's main exports and Montreal also served as shipping port for Upper Canadian wheat, now coming up fast. In fact, until the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, a lot of wheat from the American "West" ( Indiana - Ohio - Michigan ) was also transshipped through the Great Lakes to Montreal . Stephens would have had agents in Canada , and probably sub-agents as well. At the time a lot of such commodities was purchased directly from the farmers for cash by itinerant buyers. Therefore, Stephens would have been aware of the demand for copper coin as well as being in a prime position to supply it. Presumably he would have had his own private issues struck as early as 1813 and sent out to Canada to be partially used in the purchase of grain by his agents. Professing full redeemability, chances were small he would be called upon to do so, considering the cost of shipping the coin back. But with a comfortable "profit cushion" of nearly half, shipping out in bulk would have paid well. In merchant's calculations, nearly a 100% immediate return on investment. Before the crackdown on private tokens in Britain in 1817, some such pieces might have been used in Ireland as a "forced issue". But after that date they were illegal there, strictly speaking. Yet a lot of Irish tokens appeared in every subsequent year up to and including 1822, even though all became "anonymous" (i.e., no redeeming party named - and no proof that a given issuer had broken the regulations either).
The other main named issue is that of Edward Bewley, a Dublin grocer. His connection to Canada appears have been purely speculative, a market for his tokens. Although the above is his only named issue, it must have been very large; it came within an ace of being recognized as a Canadian token by the early collectors, purely on the basis of its commonness. The double-date is a mystery unless Parkes, the minter, was making use of an unused die as a matter of economy. This particular reverse - Britannia converted to Hibernia by changing the design on the shield - also appears on a number of post-1818 anonymous pennies, all of which display St. Patrick or Edmund Burke on the obverse. Then we have yet a third series: tokens dated before 1808 - but with many of them giving evidence of having been overstruck on other coins. In rare instances the obliterated date can even be made out - always 1813 to 1818. There is a set of halfpennies and pennies dated 1806 showing St. Patrick with the Irish Harp reverse that may all be overstrikes. There is also a St. Patrick penny dated 1815, using the "Bewley" reverse that can be see to have been overstruck on a Stephens penny of 1818 . An "Edmund Burke" penny of 1815 also exists struck over a Stephens penny, date indecipherable.
But why the overstrikes? Because of a curve that the British government threw such as Stephens and Bewley, neither of whom expected to ever be called upon for redemption. When Britain rolled the Irish pound into sterling in 1825, it was initially on the basis of 13d Irish for 12d sterling and immediately a large per centage of the regal Irish copper of 1805/6 and 1822 were turned in. But, wishing to absolutely eliminate them as far as possible, the British offered a deal in 1826: during that year any remaining Irish coppers would be redeemed at full sterling value, penny for penny. This meant that the coppers named to Stephens and Bewley in Canada could now be considered as being sterling and, as such, subject to withdrawal and redemption on the same terms as regular British coin. The law said so. We may reasonably conjecture that the named tokens would now be cherrypicked in Canada and returned to Ireland for redemption in sterling. This would be at a loss to Stephens and Bewley. Having issued the pieces at a cost of not much more than half face, they now had to pay full face for them, the only asset remaining being their copper bullion value, somewhat less than half. But it looks very much as if they - or some other entrepreneur - simply ran these redeemed coppers through the coining presses again, converting them into anonymous pieces and returning them to Canada again. The loss would now be a profit again although not as large as before. The fact that we have anonymous pre-1808 dated coins overstruck on other pieces from some ten years later is good proof that the destination was Canada . Lower Canada had a law on the books from 1808 prohibiting the manufacture or importation of tokens and while rarely enforced, why take chances? If new dies are to be made anyway, caution would have them antedated before the law was passed. This was a factor no where else except in Canada .
There is absolutely no reason why the above should have been included in the Canadian series whereas others with equal or better reason were omitted. Many of them show signs of having been overstruck on another coin and they would be in the category just discussed. Most of the tokens mentioned in this article saw wide use in Canada . Circa 1960, Fred Bowman made a listing of "foreign tokens with a wide circulation in Canada " by the most pragmatic means: the frequency of their presence - usually quite worn - in coin dealers' "junk boxes" in the Montreal area. Practically all these had a common occurance there - as did British "Guppys" and a number of other anonymous British tokens. "Ordinary" tokens of private British issuers rarely made it across the Atlantic in significant numbers - unless specifically sent out in quantity. They might be imported by Canadian businessmen, sent out by such as Stephens or Bewley or - in the case of the good-weight anonymous British copper tokens forced from circulation in 1817 - bought up in bulk by Canadian speculators. But when they remain common even after more than a century, they were here by intent, not by accident. We have to rather admire the wide-awakeness of these old timers in constantly exploring means by which a few more shillings might be turned.
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Oct 2008Irish Money in Colonial Canada : Evidence When the Morgan Dollar Went to War
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