Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

1867 TO 1901 73years and ten months old, I entered the office of my unclereally as an experiment in health. In such books as Who'sWho he is described as a private banker, but he had what inEurope is called a bureau de change an exchangeoffice. Herethe American traveller sold his State-bank notes, of whichthere were many hundred kinds, issued in various States, andranging in discount when sent to New York in accordance withdistance, but more so in accordance with opinion as to thesoundness of the banking laws of the different States, the problembeing further complicated by the existence of scores offailed banks, of forgeries and raised notes. As a result, I soonbecame a recognized expert in counterfeit money. To us theIrish emigrant came who wished to send a pound home to themother, or the small trader who, afraid to enter the countingroomof a regular bank, wished to buy or sell a draft on NewYork. Our business consisted largely in buying the foreigncoins of which our currency was mainly composed. It was onlyin 1858 and 1859 that silver money was coined for Canada, andthe decimal system established, and accounts were stilloftenkept in Halifax currency, while the names for York currencyWe should remember that all currencies in Northstill lingered.America are founded on the Spanish or Pillar dollar, the divisionof which into five pistareens caused the latter coin to be calleda "shilling" in our Maritime Provinces, while the fact that theSpanish dollar was a "piece of eight" and that there wereactual coins to represent this system of division also, caused thepiece that was an eighth of the dollar to be called a "shilling" insome American colonies. This is ancient history, but ourcurrency, when I was a boy, consisted largely of these Spanishcoins, more or less worn and varying greatly in value for thatreason, and I have counted tens of thousands of them, sendingthem to the melting pot. In addition to the small coins, wehad, often but not daily, to buy Spanish and Patriot doubloons,Portuguese joes, and many other foreign gold and silver coins,and much worn English silver, that not worn being current