Coinage of Upper Canada
Open-knowledge reference entry

Upper Canada had a short history as a coin-issuing entity.
King George IV Posthumous Issue (1832)
This coin was a 1/2d. token bearing a portrait of King George IV, even though it was issued two years after his death. The obverse of this piece is inscribed "PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA". The reverse has a representation of Britannia facing from right to left.
Bank of Upper Canada Coinage (1850-57)
In 1850, the Bank of Upper Canada received the right to issue a coinage due to a severe coin shortage. The coinage consisted of 1/2 Penny and 1 Penny Bank Tokens. The obverse of the coins carried a representation of St.George slaying the dragon based on Benedetto Pistrucci's gold sovereign coinage design. The reverse of the coins carried the then obsolete Coat-of-Arms of Upper Canada. The 1850 issue was struck at the Royal Mint, London, but the coins did not arrive in Canada until 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “Coinage of Upper Canada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.