Prince Edward Island
Around the end of the 18th century, the Spanish dollar was in constant circulation in Eastern Canada and the United States. The value of the coin varied in different centers but was highest in Halifax. Therefore, whenever the merchants of Prince Edward Island (PEI) secured them, they sent them to Halifax to take advantage of the higher rate. The resulting shortage of money in PEI prompted the governor to gather in all the Spanish dollars he could and have their centers punched out. Both the central plug and rims were stamped with a sunburst. The punched centers passed as shillings and the outer rims as five-shilling pieces. The combined value of the mutilated coins was thereafter 20 percent greater in PEI than outside the island (and the individual components less valuable), so as a consequence, the coins became the official currency in PEI.
Read more about this topic: Holey Dollar
Famous quotes containing the words prince, edward and/or island:
“The prince exults whomever he selects as his consort, but the queen, rather than elevating the subject of her choice, humiliates him as a man. By all that is right, a man is not intended to be the husband of his wife, but a woman is to be her husband’s wife.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“We take along a carrot
As refreshment for the parrot,
And a little can of jungleberry tea.”
—Charles Edward Carryl (1841–1920)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)