The Histroy of Newfoundland Currency

By Government of Newfoundland - Self-scanned, Public Domain

Today, Newfoundland and Labrador uses Canadian currency as a province, but it wasn't always that way.

Before Newfoundland became a Canadian province, it had its own currency, the Newfoundland dollar.

The money was used from 1865 until 1949. It was subdivided into 100 cents, the same way money is today. The Department of Finance and Customs issued banknotes and coins in denominations of 25 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents, 80 cents, one dollar, two dollars, five dollars, ten dollars, 20 dollars, and 50 dollars.

Most coins issued contained the monarch on one side and the amount on the other side. The Newfoundland penny featured a Pitcher plant from 1938.

The Newfoundland dollar was linked to the Canadian dollar. In the 1880s, both the Commercial Bank and the Union Bank of Newfoundland issued notes denominated solely in dollars. Both banks crashed in 1894.

The Department of Public Works introduced government cash notes in 1901 in denominations of 40, 50 and 80 cents, 1 and 5 dollars. In 1910, 25 cents and 2 dollars were added. In 1920, the Treasury introduced 1- and 2-dollar notes.

Back in 1931, the government of Newfoundland took Newfoundland off the gold standard. In 1932, it became prohibited to export gold without a permit, and notes were no longer convertible into gold. Newfoundland abandoned the gold standard a year after Canada made the same move.

Today, coins and banknotes of the Newfoundland dollar are collectors' items, and in some cases are quite valuable.

While this was the most recent currency, Indigenous peoples in northeastern North America used "Wampum" which were beads. At first, colonists also used this as a form of currency.

By the 15th century at least, English coins were introduced. There was an English coin found dating back to the 1420s.