Canada's First Coins Issued 1858
Province of Canada Initiated Bronze and Silver Money
Coins of the Province of Canada included a 20-cent piece that was not generally accepted by the spending public. A 25-cent coin later became standard
Before Canada’s Confederation in 1867, the Province of Canada printed its paper bank notes in denominations of both dollars and pounds. The Currency Act of 1854 ensured that provinces could blend their currencies and “use pounds, shillings and pence as well as dollars and cents,” according to the Canadian Economy site.
Not suiting their purposes, the Province of Canada changed the Currency Act in 1857 so that their monetary basis was only dollars and cents. (Other provinces followed suit shortly after, and the Uniform Currency Act was enacted in 1871, aligning all areas of Canada under one currency.)
First Coins issued December 1858
On December 12, 1858, the first coins of the Province of Canada were issued. Since Canada did not yet have its own mint, the silver coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London, England in denominations of 1-, 5-. 10-, and 20-cent pieces. (The penny was the value of a British half-penny, said Calgary Coin; 20-cent coins were supposed to equal the value of one shilling, noted coinsite.com.) The first stamping consisted of 500,000 5-cent coins, 1,250,000 10-cent coins and 750,000 20-cent pieces.
Composed of silver (except for the penny in bronze), the coins displayed the profile of a young Queen Victoria and the word Canada underneath her on the front, and two maple boughs with the crown of St. Edward on the back along with the denomination and the year. L.C. Wyon was the engraver who made the initial coins. That year and the next, 1858 to 1859, were the only years that Province of Canada coins were made. The next issue came in 1870, after Canada had become a country through John A. MacDonald’s Confederation.
Canadians did not like the unique 20-cent coin
The unique 20-cent coin was not favoured by early spending Canadians. They preferred to follow the American system. The 20-cent coin was taken out of circulation in 1870 and melted down; the higher-valued 25-cent coin was added to the currency and became a standard. A 50-cent coin also was made part of Canada’s new monetary system. The later coins featured an older version of Queen Victoria. The 1870 coins were also struck at the Royal Mint in London, or at Heaton Mint in Birmingham, England.
The 1858 Canadian coins are valued by collectors and are still available through coin dealers. As of today’s market, an 1858 bronze penny appears to range in price from $49 to $135.
Canadian currency was not “made in Canada” until 1908, when the Royal Canadian Mint was instituted by the Government of Canada.
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