History

• August 21, 2025

  Whatever happened to the penny? A history of our one-cent coin.

  By: Graham Iddon

  
  

  

  The idea of the penny as the basic denomination of an entire currency system has been with Canadians for as long as there has been a Canada. But the one-cent piece itself has been gone since 2012.

  Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): History
• August 5, 2025

  Good as gold? A simple explanation of the gold standard

  By: Graham Iddon

  
  

  

  In an ideal gold standard monetary system, every piece of paper currency represents an amount of gold held by an authority. But in practice, the gold standard system’s rules were extremely and repeatedly bent in the face of economic realities.

  Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Business, Economics, Financial literacy, History Grade level(s): Grade 03, Grade 10 / Secondary 4, Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5
• June 5, 2025

  Teaching the Treaties through art and artifacts

  

  

  This webinar, in collaboration with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba, demonstrates the Bank of Canada Museum’s lesson plan “Five bucks: The economics of Treaty relationships”.

  Content type(s): Multimedia Subject(s): Arts, Economics, History, Indigenous studies, 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
• May 22, 2025

  Speculating on the piggy bank

  By: Graham Iddon

  
  

  

  Ever since the first currencies allowed us to store value, we’ve needed a special place to store those shekels, drachmae and pennies. And the piggy bank—whether in pig form or not—has nearly always been there.

  Content type(s): Blog posts Subject(s): Arts, Business, Economics, English language arts, Financial literacy, Geography, Health, History, Math, Science Grade level(s): Grade 09 / Secondary 3, Grade 10 / Secondary 4, Grades 11 and 12 / Secondary 5