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1 Sou Belleville - 18 cherry leaves / 2 shamrocks
| Issuer | Lower Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835-1838 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A wreath of eighteen cherry leaves, tied at the base and incorporating two shamrocks, encircles the central field bearing the denomination expressed as UN SOU. The legend TOKEN appears in the upper exergue and MONTREAL in the lower exergue, all in Latin script. The wreath is rendered with fine detail, with individual ovate leaves arranged symmetrically on either side. The overall design is characteristic of the Belleville token series produced for circulation in Lower Canada during the 1835–1838 period. |
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| Reverse lettering | TOKEN UN SOU MONTREAL |
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| Additional information |
The Belleville tokens take their name not from any town in Lower Canada but from the Birmingham firm of Thomas Halliday, who operated from Belleville Works and supplied enormous quantities of anonymous copper to a colony perpetually starved of small change. British North America had no official copper coinage of its own in this period — the Crown simply never prioritized it — leaving merchants and municipalities to fill the gap with privately struck pieces that circulated on reputation alone.
The proliferation of die varieties catalogued under the Breton numbers reflects the commercial reality: multiple shipments, multiple die combinations, no single controlling authority.