Vexator Canadiensis tokens
[4] Despite the date of 1811 (or for one unique version, 1810), appearing on its reverse, it has long been thought to have been issued sometime in the 1830s, the backdating serving as a way to circumvent regulations against importing contemporary tokens.
[9] The obverse legend can be read as saying either VEXATOR or VENATOR CANADIENSIS, a Latin description that can be interpreted as "Tormentor of Canada/Pest of Canada" or "A Canadian Trapper" respectively.
[14] The reverse features a crude-looking seated female figure (likely a depiction of Britannia),[15] surrounded by the legend RENONILLOS VISCAPE, with the date 1811 (or much less commonly, 1810), appearing at the bottom.
[21] Sandham described three examples in his catalog (numbers 5, 6, and 7 under the "Canada" chapter), though he mentions that he was aware of additional varieties, differing "in the mode of spelling, or in punctuation".
[25] This story was picked up by Pierre-Napoléon Breton in his illustrated catalog of Canadian numismatics from 1894, who also goes into the dictatorial nature of Sir James Craig's colonial rule when describing the historical background for these tokens.
"[28] In 1910, American numismatist Howland Wood discovered a variety of the vexators featuring an obverse having a larger head, no legend, and the date "1810" on it.
[30] He speculated that perhaps this token indicated that the idea for the vexators had started prior to the departure of Sir John Craig, or that the obverse was the result of an experimental die pressed into makeshift service.
[33] The most comprehensive early study of the vextor tokens came from numismatist R. W. McLachlan in his article When Was the Vexator Canadensis Issued?, published in 1915.
[41] McLachlan further concluded that the "tormentor" being singled out was likely to be William IV, and that while the issuer wanted to secretly satirize the administration of Lower Canada from a French Canadian standpoint, the primary motivation was profit by issuing undervalued tokens for circulation.
[49] X-ray fluorescence have found that two of the vexator varieties are identical in their elemental composition, suggesting that they were made at the same time or at least came from the same stock of copper blanks.
