Bust and harp tokens

Due to their anonymous nature, it is not known who placed the order for the original tokens, but they are believed to have been minted in England beginning in 1825.

They were widely circulated in Lower Canada for at least 30 years, after which banks began to refuse them as payment except by weight.

The more common Bust and Harp tokens can be had for about a few tens of C$, though rarer varieties can command prices in the thousands of dollars.

[8] There are 26 major varieties of this token recognized by modern collectors,[9] distinguished primarily by the alloy used, particular features of the bust on the obverse, and the number of strings in the harp on the reverse.

McLachlan theorizes that a crisis in the lack of circulating currency in Canada reached a peak in the mid-1820s, and with local government found "wanting in its duty" to relieve the situation by issuing official coinage, local entrepreneurs found a way to introduce tokens that skirted existing counterfeiting regulations.

[19] McLachlan conjectures that within a couple of years after the original Bust and Harp tokens started to circulate is when local imitations began to appear.

[26] Courteau categorized 26 separate varieties, dividing the tokens into three main types based on whether they have eight, nine, or 10 harp strings.