1/2 Penny Richard Hurd

Richard Hurd was a Montreal merchant who issued these copper tokens in 1814 to alleviate the chronic small-change shortage that plagued Lower Canada throughout the Napoleonic Wars period, when British regal copper rarely reached the colony in sufficient quantities. Private merchant tokens filled the gap legally and practically — the colonial government tolerated them because the alternative was paralysis of everyday retail trade.

Breton 990 is among the better-documented Montreal merchant issues, though Hurd himself remains a minor figure in the historical record beyond his token issue.