Newfoundland 2-dollar coin
19th century coin of Newfoundland
The Newfoundland 2-dollar coin was issued in intermittent years between 1865 and 1888. It was the only circulation gold coin issued by a British colony. Although few coins were issued, it was broadly used in Newfoundland and eastern Canada. The coin became scarce in 1894 because of hoarding following the collapse of Newfoundland's banks and monetary system.
Background
Prior to Canadian Confederation in 1867, provinces and colonies had separate currencies. Having been a colony from its founding in 1610 until 1907, and then a dominion prior to joining Canada, Newfoundland had its own currency, the Newfoundland dollar, until 1949. Newfoundland began to issue its own decimal currency in 1865. The original plans for the new Newfoundland coinage suggested including a gold dollar. Over concerns that it would be easily lost as a result of its small size and value, the denomination of the gold coin was increased to two dollars.
Description
The resulting two-dollar coin had a diameter of 17.98 mm, the same as the ten-cent coin—in comparison, a modern Canadian dime has a diameter of 18.03 mm.
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This entry incorporates text from “Newfoundland 2-dollar coin” 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.