CANADIAN WOODEN MONEY SATIRE ARTICLE Pubblico Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 10, Number 14, April 8, 2007, Article 7
CANADIAN WOODEN MONEY SATIRE ARTICLE
I know, you're already sick of April Fools items, but here's just
one more I had to share. The Canadian satire magazine The Toque
published "A History of Wooden Money in Canada," and it's a riot.
Here are a couple excerpts:"Early Canadian traders, burdened with cumbersome animal pelts,
horns, and ivories, were unable to trade efficiently because their
sleds, canoes, and portage carts were always weighed down with their
heavy trade items. They needed a monetary solution that would make
their trekking slightly less harsh."The first wooden coins were bulky and awkward, up to 12-inches thick
and seven feet in diameter, made from the sawed cross-sections of
maple trees, and etched with rough caricatures of the King of England
on one side and a beaver on the other.""Later on came the "hard" currency, wooden coins made of ash, oak,
and petrified fir. These were the first coins to be embossed, using
iron presses and coated with a basic lacquer, the same finish French
Canadians often used as a maple syrup substitute. When traders
purchased items at dry goods stores, the clerk would always ask "ash
or check?". (The word "cash" actually comes from the Algonquin term
"ka'ash" meaning chips of wood.)"Canada didn't introduce metal coins until 1867, after the Canadian
Coin Treasury burned down to the ground. The story goes that a Canadian
treasury employee accidentally started the blaze by rubbing two nickels
together, destroying the entire wooden reserve."To read the complete article, see: Full Story
- 2007-04-08
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