CANADA
When Europeans first landed, in the 17th century, around the Gulf of St Lawrence during fishing expeditions to the rich northern waters of the Atlantic, they encountered indigenous Iroquois using wampum (beads sewn into bracelets, necklaces and belts) as money, with values determined by the size and colour of each piece. The visitors had only the few worn coins carried with them from France, Portugal, England and Scotland, so they initially turned to wampum, and later to beaver pelts, as mediums of exchange. A mistranslation of the Iroquois word for settlement (kanata) resulted in its use by the Europeans as the name for all the lands we now call Canada.
French settlers gradually increased in numbers, though most arrived as indentured labourers who had to work without salaries for three years to pay off their passage money. The few copper coins in their pockets proved inadequate for everyday market needs. A mixed currency therefore evolved, including heavily worn English and Irish halfpennies and farthings from the reigns of Stuart monarchs, and battered French deniers and sous with a garnishing of other low-denomination European small change. As the economy slowly increased in sophistication, with exports of dried fish, timber and beaver pelts, and imports of smuggled rum and sugar from the Caribbean, Spanish silver coins began to trickle their way into circulation.
France’s first attempt to control money supply to its colonies occurred in 1670 when a government mint in Paris struck small coins which became known as gloriam regni money in reference to the reverse legend: ‘GLORIAM REGNI TVI DICENT’ (They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom). Denominations included a two-sol (sou) copper piece, and a five and a fifteen-sol in silver. They circulated briefly in Canada in parts of what eventually became the USA, and in the French Caribbean. Alas, richer Canadian colonists preferred to hoard the silver pieces and to send them out of Canada when buying foreign luxuries, so today those coins are rare.
From around 1690 to at least 1725, consignments of current French coins were also remitted to pay salaries, army pay and other costs of the colonial government in Quebec. A large shipment in 1725 aboard the vessel was lost in a hurricane off Cape Breton Island. At such times the authorities turned a blind eye to the influx of Spanish pieces-of-eight, already known as Spanish dollars throughout North America, to fill the currency gaps. As well as eight-reals, smaller four and two-real Spanish silver coins also reached Canadian ports, but their numbers always proved inadequate to meet demand, so the
