Collection: Newfoundland

The earliest private tokens in Newfoundland and Labrador date from the 1840s and include the issues of Peter McAusland and the Rutherford Brothers, who operated stores in St. John’s and Harbour Grace. In later years, large numbers of SHIPS COLONIES & COMMERCE tokens were imported from Prince Edward Island. Following several attempts by the local government to ban the importation of tokens in the 1850s, additional local issues were circulated. These issues were anonymous and included a piece dated 1858 picturing a ship, and another dated 1860 that reads “SUCCESS TO THE FISHERIES.”

With the adoption of the decimal system in 1863, the value of private tokens was reduced and a decimal coinage was instituted. The coinage consisted of bronze cents, silver 5-, 10-, 20- and 50-cent pieces and gold $2 coins. The lowest denominations were issued variously between 1865 and 1947. The 20-cent pieces were issued from 1865 to 1912. In 1917, and again in 1919, a 25-cent piece was issued. The 50 cent coins were issued variously between 1865 and 1919. The $2 pieces were issued from 1865 to 1888. Coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London, and on occasion at the Heaton Mint. The Mint in Ottawa struck coinage for Newfoundland and Labrador during the First World War and Second World War and again in those years immediately preceding Newfoundland and Labrador’s entry into Confederation in 1949.