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7½ Pence; 15 Sous The Champlain and St Lawrence Rail Road
| Issuer | Champlain & St. Lawrence Rail Road |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
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| Currency | Pound |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 15 SOUS LOWER TO THE TREASURER OF THE CANADA. 7 ½ d. CHAMPLAIN & ST. LAWRENCE RAIL ROAD QUINZE SEVEN PENCE SOUS HALF PENNY REEDEMABLE AT THE CITY BANK Company Pay To Bearer Seven Pence Half Penny on demand in current Bank notes of this city sums no less than Five Shillings. Montreal 1st August 1837. 7 ½ d. 15 SOUS RAWDON WRIGHT & HATCH NEW-YORK |
| Reverse description | The reverse is a show-through impression of the obverse printing, with no independently printed design elements; the note is effectively blank on the reverse side. |
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| Comments |
The Champlain & St. Lawrence Rail Road, Canada's first operational railway, opened in July 1836 to carry passengers between La Prairie and St-Jean — a short run designed to shorten the Montreal-to-New York journey by bypassing a difficult stretch of river. By 1837, the line was issuing its own paper currency, a perfectly legal practice under the loose monetary environment of pre-Confederation British North America, where private companies routinely filled the gap left by chronic small-denomination coin shortages.
The dual denomination — 7½ Pence and 15 Sous — reflects the fractional currency tangle of Lower Canada at the time, where Halifax currency, York currency, and French-derived livre/sou reckoning all circulated simultaneously among different communities.