Montreal Bouquet Sous.

I have got 2 Montreal Bouquet Sous in my collection that I would like some more information on.Here is the descriptions of the coins;

Coin I;Obverse; 'BANK TOKEN' 'UN SOUS' 'MONTREAL'.
Reverse; 'TRADE & AGRICULTURE' 'LOWER CANADA'.

Coin II; Obverse; 'BANQUE DU PEUPLE' 'UN SOU' 'MONTREAL'.
Reverse; 'AGRICULTURE & COMMERCE' 'BAS CANADA'.

I know that 'Bas Canada' is the French for 'Lower Canada',but what does 'Banque Du Peuple' mean?

 

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Twiggs,this will be right up your street,as it were.

Aidan.

 

It means Bank of the People. But peuple can also mean citizens or nation (as in nation of people).

 

hhehhee..I just finished posting about it in another thread

http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?p=221234#post221234

 

Brilliant! Thanks for the translation,as my command of French is very poor,& my command of Quebecois is non-existent.

Aidan.

 

Calling the written language used in QC "Quebecois" is a bit like calling the primary language used in the US "American". As for the tokens, UN SOUS looks a little odd to me - that would usually be the plural only. They did it right on the other piece it seems. I just had a look at the discussion that twiggs pointed at - interesting pieces indeed!

Christian

 

Christian - Haven't you realized yet that Aidan's favorite literary character is Humpty Dumpty?

 

Christian,the 'UN SOUS' types are genuine varieties.In fact when they were originally issued,the incorrect pluralisation was taken to be a mark of authenticity.

Roy,I didn't get your posting about Humpty Dumpty & Alice in Wonderland at all.

Aidan.

 

Aiden is right

 

Twiggs,that is a very nice piece you have got there.What catalogue numbers does Charlton use as cross-references for the Canadian traders' currency tokens? Is it Courteau numbers,or is it Breton numbers? I know 'Coins of Canada' by J.A. Haxby & R.C. Willey use Breton numbers as a cross-reference in most cases,along with a few Wood numbers.

Aidan.

 

That Humpty Dumpty ... well, might have something to do with "medal-coins" and such. But back to these tokens - that story about the "sous" is interesting and funny. Did not know about that. And the bouquet is amazingly detailed! What size were those pieces?

Christian

 

Christian,they are slightly bigger than a 2 Euro coin in size.

Aidan.

 

Breton

 

Thanks for that,Twiggs.I wonder where the reference to Courteau numbers are.

Aidan.

 

Along with "Quebecois".

 

Roy,the Quebecois language is not the same thing as standard French.My boss was in France late last year.He met 2 Quebecoise (women from Quebec) who told him that the French don't understand Quebecois,so these 2 women for forced to speak to the French people in English.

As for saying that my favourite literary character was Humpty Dumpty,that's wrong! I'm not telling you which one it was though.

Aidan.

 

Thanks for the info regarding the size of these pieces, Aidan. As for Quebecois though, that is just wrong. On such coins and tokens (and also in media, etc.) French is used - pretty much the same French as in the Hexagon. Of course there may be a few country specific words in written French on either side, but that does not make the Québec French a different language.*

When it comes to spoken language, there sure are regional differences. Don't know if you ever watched the movie "The Full Monty"; friends of mine in the US saw the original version, filmed in Sheffield (UK) ... and it was somewhat difficult for them to understand most of the (working class type) actors. The version for the German market was dubbed anyway.

I for one understand "American" fairly well while "Australian" is much more difficult. Oops, they're both English ...

(* If for some reason a territory/community wants to make a point about its language being different, that could be(come) a different story. Think of "Serbo-Croatian" which used to be an official language in Yugoslavia and is now pretty much outdated.)

Christian