Geoffrey Bell Auctions Ltd. is excited to be offering the Scott Douglas Collection of Canadian medals and tokens in our Toronto Coin Expo 2023 Spring Sale this May. The collection, sure to attract a lot of enthusiastic bidders, will kick off session two of the auction. Scott’s name has been synonymous with Canadian medals and tokens for decades, thanks to his exhaustive research on the subject, and now the fruits of his labours are available to the public.
For more than 30 years, Scott Douglas has specialized in tirelessly researching and collecting Canadian tokens and medals and has unselfishly shared his knowledge. He’s served as president or on the executive of many Canadian and American numismatic organizations, receiving many awards and honours, including becoming Grand Knight of the Saint Eligius Brotherhood of Numismatists of Canada and in 2018 receiving the highest prize in Canadian numismatics, the J. Douglas Ferguson Foundation Award.
Some highlights of the more than 200 lots in this collection include an 1852 Quebec Bank One Penny Token, an incredible condition rarity with brilliant, almost fully red surfaces. Both sides are flashy and fully struck and its mate, an 1852 Quebec Bank Half Penny Token, plain edge, about 80% brilliant copper-orange with areas of steel colour in the fields and remnants of a partial print on the obverse. Almost never seen this nice.
Lot 700 is Lr. 666 — McGill University Henry Chapman medal, copper. The Chapman medal for Classical Literature and Languages is the first in the McGill medal subseries, funded by Montreal merchant Henry Chapman in 1857 (Sandham, 1872).
Canadian history abounds with this sale, as shown with Lr. 1451 — Pleasure Trip on the St. Lawrence – Steamer Longueuil. 1882. Examples of this scarce souvenir medal are also known in silver, bronze, lead, and tin. The white metal representative in the Joffre Collection realized $390 in April 2022, and this piece is every bit its equal.
Lr. 1540 — Alfred Sandham’s Medallic History of Montreal is an extremely rare medal, only the second this cataloguer has seen. These have been highly sought-after by collectors since the late 19th century.
Significant named medals include Lr. 1856 — Queen’s University, copper. Awarded to J.H. Pilkey for medicine in 1922, Dr. Pilkey would go on to serve as a surgeon at Kingston General Hospital.
Our Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale takes place May 4th and 5th at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, with lot viewing from 9:30am to 4:30pm and the auction starting at 5:30pm, Eastern time. Bidding is available in-person, online, by phone, and by mail. Additionally, our popular, online only, Warm Up Sale is May 2nd.