2009 Canada Sterling Silver $15 Coin - Playing Card Series: Ten of Spades

2009 Canada Sterling Silver $15 Coin - Playing Card Series: Ten of Spades

Face Value: $15
Mintage: 25000
Composition: 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper
Weight (g): 31.56
Diameter (mm): 49.80 x 28.60
Finish: Proof

Design: During the 17th and 18th centuries, New France faced chronic shortages. The colony was months away from the motherland, isolated for months by winter ice and the treacherous Atlantic Ocean that claimed countless sailing ships. Everything was scarce—including coins.

Still, merchants, civil servants and soldiers had to be paid. In a desperate move to keep daily transactions flowing, the governor began issuing playing cards with a written promise to pay what was owed when the next shipment of coins arrived from France. Historic records show that cards were cut into halves or quarters and had their corners clipped to reflect different values.

"Playing card money" was first issued in 1685. Despite the king's displeasure, authorities continued to implement this temporary measure whenever their colony faced a coin shortage. In 1729, they began using plain card stock which circulated like modern bank notes until New France fell to the British in 1759.

Counterfeiting was always a concern and the penalty severe. Cards that weren't reissued when they were "cashed in" were destroyed. As a result, only one set of playing card money is known to have survived into the 20th century. It served as the model for reproductions created by Henri Beau, iconographic researcher at Library and Archives Canada that graciously provided a number of his drawings as reference for this series. The King of Hearts is a concept design inspired by Beau's work. The name G DE PARIS mimics the mark of a 15th- century French playing card artist. Beau's card was cut in half and one of the inscriptions written on the back suggests the head of the King of Hearts was valued at twelve livres. The last word written on the bottom half is virtually illegible and is believed to value the body of the King of Hearts at fifteen sous.