1 Sou Banque du Peuple - Crown with oak leaves

The Banque du Peuple was a short-lived Montreal institution founded in 1835 to serve the French-Canadian commercial class, who were effectively frozen out of credit by the English-controlled Bank of Montreal. Its token issues emerged from a practical crisis: small change was chronically scarce in Lower Canada throughout the 1830s, and private banks were legally permitted to fill the gap. The political backdrop was anything but calm — 1838 was the year following the failed Patriote rebellions, with Lord Durham's controversial inquiry underway and the colony under special council rule.

The bank itself collapsed in 1839, making its token issues a one-year window of production at most.