Owner Comments:
Purchased on 9/11/2013.
Obverse Description: St. George on horseback facing right slaying a dragon with a sword; around above, BANK OF UPPER CANADA; in exergue between two roses, 1857; the letters R.K. & Co. on in the right side of the ground line represent the firm Rowe, Kentish & Co., London the agent through whom the order from the Bank of Upper Canada was placed for the production of the tokens. The depiction of St. George is based on the design by Benedetto Pistrucci for the British sovereign of 1817 and is considered to be the definitive representation of the theme.
Reverse Description: The seal of Upper Canada, an anchor and sword of justice crossed on a wreath of oak through which passes a tomahawk and arrow below a Royal crown and above a pair of cornucopiae transversed, a segment of the Union Jack in the upper right corner; around, BANK TOKEN ONE HALF- PENNY
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The Bank of Upper Canada was established in 1821 in York (Toronto, Ontario) under a charter granted by the Province of Upper Canada in 1819. When Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841 to form the Province of Canada, it was decided that only the bank that held the government accounts should have the right to issue copper tokens. This privilege was enjoyed by the Bank of Montreal until 1848. Following the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849, rioting in Montreal led to the destruction of the legislative buildings and the capital of the province was transferred to Toronto. As a result, the right to issue tokens passed to the Bank of Upper Canada.
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Availability:
While relatively common in grades of XF and lower, these Bank of Upper Canada tokens become difficult to find in AU grades, and outright hard to locate in true MS condition. Of the 1857 issues in particular, Robert Wallace McLachlan wrote in his 1916 book "The Copper Tokens of Upper Canada":
"A most extensive coinage of this date, both of pennies and half-pennies was struck, but before much of it was put into circulation, the decimal currency act of 1858 was passed, which necessitated the coinage of the cents of 1858 and 1859. The balance of these bank tokens therefore remained in the vaults of the Montreal branch for a number of years, when they were sold to a coppersmith and melted down."