1858 Province of Canada Coins

General discussions about canadian coins.
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rjd65
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:09 am

1858 Province of Canada Coins

Post by rjd65 » Thu Apr 21, 2022 8:23 pm

Fellow collectors, I have a debate topic. Did the publishers of Canadian coin albums make a major error by including the Province of Canada coins in the Dominion of Canada coin collective?

Why did they not designate the 1858 coins (and 1859 for the cents) as a Province of Canada issue? Sure it would have used more space in the albums but the final product would be credible. Whether its Whitman, Library of Coins, Lighthouse, Gardmaster or Uni-safe they all fail in this regard. You would think back in the 50s and 60s when large quantities of albums began to be published, expert coin consultants would have been engaged to ensure accuracy in how coins were designated. I have the orange Library of Coins British North America album. It's a very nice vintage album except for the glaring omission of neglecting to include the Province of Canada coins. Instead they included them in the Post Confederation albums. This shows a certain level of historical ignorance as it does not adequately illustrate the evolution of Canada the country. The 20 cent has no business being part of the same album as the 25 cents. It should have been in an album with the other 20 cent issues. Now I realize many collectors no longer store their coins in many of these albums but many still do. Some collect the albums with no intent of storing coins in them. Unfortunately, I suspect many collectors of these albums do not understand the not insignificant flaws inherent in them. I guess we only have ourselves to blame for allowing this oversight to persist for decades. eBay has a Pre-Confederation category but almost no sellers list 1858/1859 coins in this category. My hat is off to those that do.

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