Hudson's Bay Company Tokens are a surrogate payment tool used in the fur trade for many decades. The largest unit of account was one “made beaver”, which was equated to the skin of an adult male beaver in good condition. Also went tokens with a face value of half, one quarter and one eighth of the “harvested beaver”. The obverse of the copper token depicted the emblem of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the reverse - the face value. [1] Before these brass tokens went into circulation, other counting means — such as sticks, porcupine needles, ivory discs, musket bullets or anything else by agreement between the merchant — were used for the conditional “beaver skin” and skins getter (trapper) . In exchange for skins, the getter received conditional units of account, for which he had the right to shop at the store. Metal tokens were designed by George Simpson McTavish of Fort Albany in 1854.
Notes
- ↑ Charlotte Gray 'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder' Random House, 2004