Hudson Bay Company Trade Token Question

smeyer23

I received a call today from a friend that purchased what he said was an old coin at an antique store. He called me and asked if I could research it. I have not seen it yet, but it is described as a Hudson Bay Company 1804 5MB on the obverse and a shield, two stags, and a beaver on the reverse. I asked him what it was made of, and he claimed it was silver. My research says it must be a repo. The real trade tokens where made of brass and had NB not MB on them. Also they came in 4 smaller demoninations than 5 Made Beaver. I saw a repo on ebay with the date 1804 and 5 MB on it. Anyone give me some help on this. Thanks

farthing

I have to agree with you, a quick reading of links returned by Google indicate that the earliest Hudson Bay Co. tokens where issued between 1860 and 1870, that the highest value was 1 NB (MB) and were made in brass.

Later tokens made in the 1920s were in aluminum and were issued in several denominations - 1, 5, 10 and 20 MB. The 5 MB should be 25mm in size. They appear to be uniface tokens.


Link to PDF file The link takes you to a Manitoba government fact sheet on HBC trade tokens.

smeyer23

Thanks for the help on this topic.