During the 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds if not thousands of Canadians were deeply involved in antiquarian and collecting pursuits, including the collection of, and research on, coins, tokens, medals, and banknotes. Most of these individuals have been lost to history, but the stories of some of them survive, if only murkily, in numismatic and philatelic literature, archival sources, and sometimes tokens, medals, or banknotes themselves. This book focuses on those early Canadian numismatists who have left tangible legacies in the form of tokens, medals, banknotes, and other collectibles by having issued or designed them themselves, having signed them, or having been honoured on them. One chapter is devoted to the earliest scientific and social organizations in Canada that were either devoted to numismatics or accumulated significant numismatic collections, of which the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal is the most prominent one. The book rounds out with a chapter on the then-popular but fraudulent practice of issuing tokens that purported to be merchant tokens of various kinds, but were actually fabrications created solely to profit their issuers, who sold these “rare tokens” to unsuspecting or undiscriminating collectors.

The book includes brief histories of the numismatics-related societies of the 19th and early 20th centuries, biographies of nearly 100 early numismatists, and a richly illustrated catalogue of the coins, tokens, medals, banknotes, stock certificates, and a couple of stamps related to those numismatists and societies.