Nova Scotia's chronic shortage of small change in the early nineteenth century was met largely by private tokens and imported copper rather than official colonial issue. This piece falls into the merchant token category — circulating by necessity and mutual acceptance rather than legal authority. The "Trade and Navigation" inscription was a conventional formula borrowed from British Treasury copper, lending these pieces an air of official sanction they technically lacked.
Breton 962 is well-documented as a non-local import, almost certainly struck in Birmingham by one of the private die-sinkers supplying the colonial token trade.
Nova Scotia's chronic shortage of small change in the early nineteenth century was met largely by private tokens and imported copper rather than official colonial issue. This piece falls into the merchant token category — circulating by necessity and mutual acceptance rather than legal authority. The "Trade and Navigation" inscription was a conventional formula borrowed from British Treasury copper, lending these pieces an air of official sanction they technically lacked.
Breton 962 is well-documented as a non-local import, almost certainly struck in Birmingham by one of the private die-sinkers supplying the colonial token trade.