R.I.P. Hudson's Bay Company 1670–2025

June 1st is the last day of operation for Canada's and North America's oldest company, the Hudson's Bay Company. All stores close for the last time at the end of business hours today. 

I believe the company itself doesn't yet cease to exist since it has to finalize its payments to creditors as well as the sale of its trademarks, especially the iconic stripes. Tim Horton's has offered $30M for the HBC trademarks of this sort but this has yet to be approved by the courts.

I'll return to this post later to add pictures of some of its main trade tokens.

EDIT — Here are a couple of these artefacts in my collection:

CATALOGUE 

This is known to have been issued in 1946.

Hudson's Bay Co., British Columbia District, $1, Fort Grahame Post. Red cardboard with fabric on back. Length: 5.9 cm. 

Larry Gingras, Medals, Tokens, and Paper Money of the Hudson's Bay Company (CNRS 1975), no. 367.

The date is 1913—1916 since the signature is that of John E. Ross who was a clerk at Fort Graham during those years (Gingras p. 114).

I'll add more later. You're welcome to add your own 👇

Here are a few more in the category “paper exonumia”:

I added the 25c to the $1 previously posted.

These go back to the days before gift cards. The series of 1982 Bay Bonus Bucks could be used only in Alberta.

Here are some of the tokens:

East Main District, ⅛, ¼, ½, and 1 “Made Beaver”; the punchmark at the bottom of the 1 MB was for the trading post of Moose Factory. “NB” should have been “MB”. They are dated to 1857 based on archive documents.

The first token should have been on the first two pictures as it is the 1 MB originally intended for the East Main District. The other three are for the Labrador district (not yet in the Numista catalogue).

The small triangle was made of a cut piece of a lead sheet used as caulking for repairing cracks in the hulls of ships (L. Gingras in his 1975 catalogue, p. 81). It dates to about 1912 and represent the value of a skin of an undetermined animal. The other three replaced the small triangle after about 1919.

This is the entire series of which the 1 artic fox token (square) was introduced above. So we also have the 5c, 10c, 25c, 50c, and 100c (i.e. dollar).

Here are some more:

These tokens (and the 50c and $1 which I don't have) are not yet in the Numista catalogue. Yorkton was a new community in Saskatchewan founded at the end of the 1800s. According to Gingras (full reference in link below):

The tokens were issued under authority of the local Manager [of the HBC store], who used them primarily to pay for produce brought to the store by farmers in the area. Old-time residents of Yorkton recall the tokens and are of the opinion they were in use about the time of the first World War.

And we now have a page for Gingra's HBC coin, paper money and medal catalogue. As you can see, it's a type-written book, but full of orally-transmitted information he got from people directly or indirectly involved with the issuing of many of the items in the catalogue (such as the Yorkton tokens). All those people have now passed away, so this information is precious.

Another useful book is Brian Gettler's Colonialism's Currency: Money, State, and First Nations in Canada, 1820–1950. I have barely started reading it but it has interesting analyses as well as photos of HBC posts and counters where the tokens were used.

Of the items I own, only a large 1670–1970 medal and a 1974 nickel $5 certificate remain. I'll add them when I retrieve the $5 certificate which is stored away for now…