Happy British Columbia Day!

In the late 1850s, gold was discovered in the Fraser River and Cariboo districts of British Columbia. The gold rush that followed brought a large influx of new inhabitants, changing the colony virtually overnight from a small settlement based on trading to a rapidly expanding one. The almost complete lack of a circulating medium occasioned great inconvenience. In 1859, Governor James Douglas requested Her Majesty’s government to ship out a specified quantity of gold, silver and copper coins. Silver and copper coins amounting to little more than half the value requested were shipped, but no gold coins. The governor, well…

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