Canadian Perpetual Calendars.

Every society that could call itself even slightly advanced has had a fascination with time and the means by which it was determined - and the more advanced, the greater the need for marking ever smaller divisions of time. Daily calendars came to have supreme importance in the world of business and although we presume that the earliest mass-produced calendars were paper, practically none have survived once they became obsolete. Slightly more advanced were pocket-piece calendars in bronze, brass or even silver in the general appearance of a medallion. These have been around since at least the 1700s but were good only for a single given year. Nevertheless, quite substantial collections of them can be made from the various places and eras although all tend to be scarce if not rare.

So-called “perpetual calendars” in similar format came into being during the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, with their hey-day during the first two or three decades of the 20 th century when technology and fairly cheap labour could combine to ensure their production at very low cost – for most of them were promotional giveaways of various companies.

The above is typical – even though there aren't a tremendous number of different type Canadian perpetual calendars. This was issued by the Montreal newspaper La Presse in (presumably) 1907 and was useable for the next twenty years. It consisted of an aluminum double-shell with an indicator-wheel located inside, turnable to the correct setting by the knob in the reverse center. A truly perpetual calendar – insofar as the correct days of the week within the month are concerned – would have had to have covered 28 years. And if correct as to the phases of the moon as well, 52 years. It was the lack of space that restricted its coverage to 21 years.

A second example of a moveable (if not exactly perpetual ) calendar was that shown below. This was issued by the Lumen Bearing Company of Buffalo and Toronto in about 1911 – since it covers the period 1911-31. Chances are good that head office was in Buffalo, making it actually a U.S. item, with Toronto probably a branch plant. Even so, it

would no doubt have been used as a give-away to valued customers of the Toronto operation as well. Like the La Presse piece, it is also in aluminum and also consists of hollow shells with a moveable wheel inside. Both are shown in approximate actual size.

 

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.