Publications and Research

Autumn 1996

Productivity growth in the commercial service sector by Dinah Maclean The market for futures contracts on Canadian bankers' acceptances by Nancy Harvey Canada and international financial institutions by Robert Lafrance and James Powell Money markets and central bank operations: Conference summary by Mark Zelmer

Cover: 1804 Bank of England dollar

This coin was issued by the Bank of England in response to a severe shortage of reliable, full-weight silver coinage in the late eighteenth century in Great Britain.

Because few coins had been struck since 1751, those in circulation were so worn and underweight that merchants haggled over their value. Owing to the high cost of silver, the government could issue coinage only at a loss, and therefore the Bank of England serviced the mercantile community by circulating Spanish colonial eight-reale pieces. These 'Spanish dollars,' counterstamped with a portrait bust of George III to indicate their official nature, were initially valued at four shillings, nine pence. The frequent counterfeiting of this mark, however, led the Bank to issue coins like the one shown on the cover, with a design that completely obscured the original motif. Over four and a half million pieces, all dated 1804, were minted between 1804 and 1812 by Boulton and Watt, a private firm at Soho, near Birmingham. Valued at five shillings, the coins were in general use in Great Britain until recalled for redemption in 1820.

About the size of a pre-1968 Canadian silver dollar, this coin features a design based upon the seal of the Bank of England on the reverse. The insignia shows a seated Britannia holding an olive branch, with a cornucopia below her and a beehive to her right, surrounded by the inscription 'Bank of England five shillings dollar' and topped with a 'mural' crown.

This piece is part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

Photography by James Zagon.