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NEW BOOK: COLONIALISM'S CURRENCYWell, not new actually, but new to us - we haven't covered this 2020 book yet in The E-Sylum. I learned about it through a review by Jesse Kraft in the 2024 issue 1 of ANS Magazine from the American Numismatic Society. -Editor 
Colonialism's Currency
Money, often portrayed as a straightforward representation of market value, is also a political force, a technology for remaking space and population. This was especially true in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canada, where money - in many forms - provided an effective means of disseminating colonial social values, laying claim to national space, and disciplining colonized peoples. Colonialism's Currency analyzes the historical experiences and interactions of three distinct First Nations - the Wendat of Wendake, the Innu of Mashteuiatsh, and the Moose Factory Cree - with monetary forms and practices created by colonial powers. Whether treaty payments and welfare provisions such as the paper vouchers favoured by the Department of Indian Affairs, the Canadian Dominion's standardized paper notes, or the "made beaver" (the Hudson's Bay Company's money of account), each monetary form allowed the state to communicate and enforce political, economic, and cultural sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and their lands. Surveying a range of historical cases, Brian Gettler shows how currency simultaneously placed First Nations beyond the bounds of settler society while justifying colonial interventions in their communities. Testifying to the destructive and the legitimizing power of money, Colonialism's Currency is an intriguing exploration of the complex relationship between First Nations and the state. In his review Jesse writes: "This book should be considered essential to the libraries of those interested in Canadian money, as it is one of the few academic approaches to the formation of Canadian money through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, giving a multidisciplinary historian's approach to a numismatic topic. I would also recommend it to those who study money and value in a broader sense. While the book is situated in a specific time and place, the theories and methods used in the analysis and discussion can be used to compare and contrast the introduction of a new unit of value to any other civilization or society."
For more information, or to order, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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