SASKATCHEWAN TRADE TOKEN WORK EVOLUTION

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 17, April 25, 2021, Article 5

Howard R. Engel of Richard Stockley Books in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada submitted these notes on important references on Saskatchewan trade tokens that came out of his desire to meet the numismatic literature needs of one of his customers. Thanks! -Editor

I recently sold the following seminal work on Saskatchewan trade tokens by Cecil C. Tannahill (1912-1997), the first Western Canadian president of the Canadian Numismatic Association (1959-1961) and whose research on the trade tokens of his home province set the standard for historical information and accuracy of description emulated by Canadian authors of token books for his and other jurisdictions thereafter (per the Canadian Numismatic Bibliography, Darryl Atchison, ed., Numismatic Education Society of Canada, 2007, p. 1032). His first work in this area was published in 1967. Tannahill sold his extensive Saskatchewan trade token collection to the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon in 1974. In recognition of his significant contribution to Canadian numismatics, Tannahill was conferred its highest award, the CNA's J. Douglas Ferguson Award in 1981.

Tannahill, Cecil C. An Illustrated Edition on Banking, Trade Tokens, Paper Money and Scrip Used in the Territory and Province of Saskatchewan. White Rock, BC : The Author, 1980; 219 p. : ill. ; hard cover.

Three addenda were initially published for this title, the first in 1982 by Tannahill and the next two by Ron L. Rogal in 1985 and 1987:

Rogal, Ron L. Saskatchewan Trade Tokens. 3rd addendum. Saskatoon: The Author, 1987, 27 p. stapled blue paper covers.

With the Tannahill book, I also sold its addenda 1 and 3 to the same customer, but not addendum 2 as I did not have it in stock. He expressed an interest in it so I'm attempting to track it down. In the process, I discovered that no fewer than 3 more addenda to the Saskatchewan trade tokens were published after 1987: in 1996, 2014 and 2015. There is yet another update in production that could be released within the next 1-2 years. Since at least 1985, Ron L. Rogal has taken up the Tannahill mantel in ensuring the Saskatchewan trade token list remains current. He advertised the availability of the 2014 checklist (that he would accompany with 2015 addendum for no extra charge) in the December 2019 issue of Numismatica Canada, vol. 18 no. 4, whole no. 72 p. [116]:

"The 2014 Checklist of Saskatchewan Trade Tokens is available. This combines the 1996 Checklist with all new finds up to January, 2014, plus list updates since. A column has been added to show which tokens are in the Tannahill-Harding collection at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. The price for the spiral bound book is C$25.00 including postage. Send payment to: Ron L. Rogal. 1007 Kingsmere Blvd., Saskatoon, SK S7J 5A7;"

In addition to these printed resources, Ron and Jim MacKenzie, Webmaster of the Saskatoon Coin Club, have developed an online listing of Saskatchewan trade tokens that is up-to-date with the latest discoveries (some 2,050 token designs have been identified thus far) and includes descriptions and most (currently ca. 1700) are illustrated with images, such as the following:

(Incidentally, the local pronunciation of the town's name from where this particular token was issued, Bienfait, is "Been-fayt"! It derives directly from the French expression, «Bien fait!» which translates into English as "Well done!")

Access to this definitive database of Saskatchewan tokens consisting of the "ENTIRE Tannahill catalogue and every token discovered since its publication is now available in an online catalogue, hosted by the Saskatoon Coin Club and free for all to use" (personal communication, April 19, 2020) at the following link:
http://www.saskatooncoinclub.ca/articles/98_sask_merch_tokens_intro.html

That said, this online resource is not meant to supplant the printed token books. As Jim MacKenzie observed,

"The online catalogue is intended to be a companion piece to the printed catalogues and addendums. From what Ron has told me, a lot of token collectors still prefer a hard copy to anything online.

"The online version just caters to the more tech savvy collectors, and it has accomplished one major thing - we have received a decent number of e-mails from people with new discoveries of R10 designs or new varieties. Most of these people are non-collectors who were going through Grandma's button jar, found a token then went online to do a little research. Their Google search came back with a match to an entry in the online catalogue so they contacted us to determine its importance and/or value."

Thanks to collectors of Saskatchewan trade tokens, numismatic bibliophiles all, for their preference to continue acquiring printed checklists and thereby preventing the extinction of such printed works. Rather, the evolution of those works have allowed online and print versions to co-exist. Thanks to the late great Cecil C. Tannahill and his successors, Ron L. Rogal and Jim MacKenzie of the Saskatoon Coin Club, for a job well done! Bien fait, indeed! -- HRE