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1 Sou Belleville - 18 cherry leaves / 5 shamrocks
| Issuer | Lower Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835-1838 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | AGRICULTURE & COMMERCE BAS-CANADA |
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| Additional information |
The Belleville tokens take their name from the Ontario town where they were struck by local merchant and token manufacturer James Watt — not the Scottish engineer — operating under contract to supply small change to a colony perpetually starved of official copper. Lower Canada's monetary chaos in the 1830s was genuine: British authorities refused to sanction a colonial mint, yet hoarded what little copper circulated, leaving merchants to fill the gap privately. The Belleville series ran across multiple die marriages, and the leaf and shamrock count variants (catalogued separately by Breton) reflect different die pairings rather than intentional design changes.