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    Army bills: Funding the War of 1812

    In 1812, British North America had no banks and little currency. With the prospect of war drying up supplies of coins, the government of Lower Canada decided to issue legal tender notes called “army bills” to pay for troops and supplies.

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    Needs or wants? That is the question!

    Do you need it, or do you want it? That’s an important question to ask before buying anything. This activity is designed to teach kids how to prioritize their needs and wants, and how to make informed choices when shopping.

    Teaching the green economy

    From windmills and solar panels to electric cars, signs of the green economy are all around us. Check out our resources for how to teach about the green economy.

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CENTimental Journey

By: Graham Iddon


June 23, 2014

Our exhibition hosted at the Canadian Museum of History

With all the blogging we’ve been doing for Voices from the Engraver, you’d think we had nothing else on our exhibition plate. We do, actually, and it’s called CENTimental Journey. This temporary exhibition, hosted at the Canadian Museum of History, walks you through more than 150 years of the Canadian 1 cent piece. CENTimental Journey exhibits a dozen pennies ranging from the first Province of Canada 1 cent piece to the last Canadian penny ever minted.

It is also an exhibition about what a few pennies used to buy, comparing that with what it costs to buy the same things now. Designed to look like catalogue pages from 1912 and 2012, it’s a fun and eye-opening exploration of the concrete effects of inflation on our lives, not to mention a sharp reminder of how the penny had outlived its usefulness.

Making the price comparisons is not as easy as it sounds. In choosing the catalogue items, we needed items whose relative values would have remained largely unchanged from both eras. This proved to be an unexpected challenge when we tried to compare hockey sticks. A mortar and pestle probably reached its zenith of design sophistication a few millennia ago, but sports equipment is still evolving. A simple wooden hockey stick that cost a couple of dollars in 1912 barely has an equivalent in today’s market. Pretty much any chunk of lumber a kid could whack a puck with was just fine a hundred years ago, but modern technologies—not to mention NHL aspirations—have added surprising levels of complexity to what was once a fairly straightforward item (titanium shafts with carbon blades, anyone?). Then again, the relative prices of some items have dropped thanks to modern mass production. The average price of a car in 1912 was higher than the average annual income. Now that situation is reversed.

All in all, figuring out this exhibition proved a surprisingly complicated task for our curator. In the end it turned out that lots of familiar clothing and household items have remained more or less unchanged in relative terms, so those are the kinds of items we chose to include in our exhibition.

Our designer did not simply copy items out of period catalogues when she designed our exhibition. She personally illustrated each 1912 catalogue item using vintage catalogue images as inspiration. The item descriptions are inspired by the catalogue vernacular of a century ago and naturally caused havoc with our poor, suffering translator. And the modern side? That was easy; we designed it to appear as if it’s ready to be posted on-line.

CENTimental Journey opens 27 June and runs for one year. Drop in for a visit—behind the Great Hall, on your left around the corner past the Canadian Stamp Collection.

We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
Content type(s): Blog posts

The Museum Blog

June 16, 2022

Army bills: Funding the War of 1812

By: David Bergeron, Graham Iddon


In 1812, British North America had no banks and little currency. With the prospect of war drying up supplies of coins, the government of Lower Canada decided to issue legal tender notes called “army bills” to pay for troops and supplies.
Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Economy, History
May 5, 2022

Between tradition and technology

By: Graham Iddon


Collage, man at an easel, paintings of birds and a goose illustration with comments written on it.
What was proposed was a complete about-face from the philosophy behind recent security printing. If photocopiers could easily deal with the colours and designs of the current series, then the next series should be bold and simple.
Content type(s): Blog posts
April 21, 2022

Teaching the green economy

By: Adam Young


From windmills and solar panels to electric cars, signs of the green economy are all around us. Check out our resources for how to teach about the green economy.
Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Business and careers, Economy, Geography, Science, Social studies Grade level(s): Grade 07 / Secondary 1, Grade 08 / Secondary 2, Grade 09 / Secondary 3, Grade 10 / Secondary 4, Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
April 4, 2022

Talk to your kids about money

By: Heather Montgomery


Collage, ceramic pig on background of a bank book and a stamp folder with kids on it.
Introduce important financial skills to your children, and help them plan for their futures with free resources from the Bank of Canada Museum and others.
Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Financial literacy Grade level(s): Early childhood / Kindergarten, Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03, Grade 04, Grade 05, Grade 06, Grade 07 / Secondary 1, Grade 08 / Secondary 2, Grade 09 / Secondary 3, Grade 10 / Secondary 4, Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP
March 3, 2022

Teaching inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic

By: Heather Montgomery


COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on the economy: closing businesses, driving down demand and interrupting supplies. With news stories and popular culture addressing inflation and supply chain issues, now is the perfect time to explain this key economic concept to your high school students.
Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Economy Grade level(s): Grade 09 / Secondary 3, Grade 10 / Secondary 4, Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5 and CEGEP

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