Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bill in Burl, post: 1218370, member: 23692&quot;]What you have is a Canadian Colonial Token.&nbsp; Before Great Britain allowed Canada to mint their own coinage, the only coins that they had for circulation were US and foreign (usually Mexican, Spanish, French and Brit) mintages.&nbsp; To allow for commerce, banks and private mints struck penny and halfpenny tokens and they were readily used on both sides of the border back then.&nbsp; &quot;Sou&quot; is the denomination (in French).&nbsp; &quot;Bas Canada&quot; is Lower Canada (usually Montreal and environs) to distinguish it from Upper Canada (Ontario) as they were called at the time.&nbsp; Lower Canada was almost entirely French, while Upper was British or American/European.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your token was issued in 1837 or 1838 by that bank and there are two distinct types.&nbsp; One is called the &quot;Arnault issue&quot; and the other the &quot;Belleville Issue&quot;.&nbsp; The Arnault issue has a Charlton designation/number of LC-4A1 or 2 and is distinguished by a maple leaf directly above the &quot;Un&quot; in Un Sou.&nbsp; The LC4A1 is medal axis while the LC-4A2 is coinage axis .. the medal is the scarcer of the 2.&nbsp; The Belleville issue (LC-5A1, 2, or 3) is characterized by a leaf wreath that has a gap directly above the &quot;Un&quot;. They are not scarce, but you don&#039;t see them every day either.&nbsp; An F graded coin is $40 for the medal axis and $20 for the coinage axis for the Arnault.&nbsp; The Belleville issue has a scarce variety where the leaf wreath is open and not connected above the &quot;Un&quot; and they get pricey real fast.&nbsp; The commonest Belleville has the wreath closed above the &quot;Un&quot; by a line and is worth less than $10 full retail in VF condition. There were many many different types and varieties of the Bank du Peuple different tokens and most DO have token on them.&nbsp; There are many many collectors of Canadian tokens, but they are nice to keep.&nbsp; The prices quoted are full retail, so you will not get that from a dealer.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in