Curiouser and curiouser

Token Talk: UBC Transit Passes + Some tips for Transit collectors

Token Talk with our token explorer Duff Malkin UBC Transit Passes + Some tips for Transit collectors Q When did UBC Bus passes start  ? Duff > I may be wrong but I think the first UBC period (i.e. valid for a long period of time) bus passes originated in 1978. These were laminated passes which were good for a term at UBC. I believe they cost 78 dollars but this was a bargain for four months. On the very first day one was required to present it and ones Alma Mater Society card as proof in order to get…

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A Favourite Coin – 1958 B.C. Dollar

My father was a Royal Naval man and so proud of his service. He was too young for the war but joined the Navy soon afterwards when he was 16 and served a full career. One of the ships he told us about was was the veteran battle cruiser HMS Newcastle which had seen such brave action in the war. Post-war, Dad joined the re-commissioned ship in the Far East. There was action in the Malayan Emergency when the ships guns where “fired in anger”. Then there was a long Foreign Service voyage from Ceylon to Burma to Hong Kong…

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My Favorite Canadian Coin

The 1949 silver dollar issue is considered by me, and many others to be the most beautiful of all Canadian circulating coins. I’m maybe more than a little biased being that I was born in Newfoundland and lived there until my late teens (and no it never leaves your blood). This coin was issued as the third commemorative in the silver dollars series to mark the entry of Newfoundland into the Confederation. The reverse shows “The Matthew”, the ship in which John Cabot is thought to have discovered the island in 1497. Below the waves is inscribed the Latin phrase…

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Bank Notes: The world’s oldest (surviving) bank note ?

“In 1923, Dr. Richard Ehrenfeld of Vienna wrote to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to announce that he had in his possession the oldest bank note in existence, a one kwan (or guan) issue of the Ming dynasty from about the year 1375, discovered in 1888 during the demolition of an old house in Beijing and acquired by his father….” Read on in this interesting article on the American Numismatic Society’s blog  http://www.anspocketchange.org/the-worlds-oldest-surviving-paper-money/ “The Chinese not only invented paper, they invented paper money, during the reign of emperor Chen Tsung (998-1022 AD). Examples predating the Ming notes are rarely encountered and…

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