North West Company token
Canadian Museum of History, 2014.72.4, IMG2015-0189-0010-Dm
On April 24, 1779, several Montréal-based fur merchants joined forces to form the North West Company. Over the next four decades, the consortium engaged in intense competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company for control of the Canadian fur trade. This brass “beaver token” was issued by the North West Company in 1820. It represented the value of a prime beaver pelt.