Card Money of New France (1685 – 1759)

Card money is considered to be the first paper money used in North America, circulating primarily in New France. At the time, this area encompassed most of what today is

Quebec, Ontario, Labrador, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, northern Newfoundland, and a wide corridor in the American mid-west stretching all the way down to Louisiana.

Card money was a form of emergency money; a creative answer to a potentially delicate situation—a shortage of coinage needed to pay the troops largely stationed in Quebec City. In 1685, when the Intendant of New France, Jacques de Meulles, ran out of money, he issued promissory notes written on the back of playing cards, hence the term ‘card money,’ in denominations of 15 and 40 sols and 4 livres. The card money was backed by the Intendant’s own credit and was intended to be redeemed as soon as the shipment of coinage arrived from France. King Louis XIV of France condemned the issue of card money, but the French colonial authorities could see no other alternative and continued to issue it until the turn of the eighteenth century. To the Intendant’s credit, the notes were promptly redeemed and destroyed before there was any major repercussion. To this

(Left) New France, 1749, 15 sols card money - 1968.286.1. (Right) New France, 1733, 24 livres card money – 1963.40.7. Both pieces are signed (or initialled) by Jean-Victor Varin de la Marre, agent; Gilles Hocquart de Champerny, Intendant; and Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor of New France.

day, no example of actual playing card money has been recovered.

The practice of issuing card money was resumed in 1729 when the colony was once again faced with a chronic shortage of money. This time, with the blessing of Louis XV, card money was re-issued to save on the problem of having to ship precious coinage to the colony. The second issue of card money consisted of promissory notes written onto plain card stock (not playing cards), which were cut into different shapes depending on their values for the benefit of those who could not read. Card money was issued in a large range of values from 7 sols and 6 deniers to 24 livres (converted into British currency: 7 ½ pence to 1 pound). Card money replaced, more or less, the smaller coinage that was either hoarded, or else too worn to be accepted. They circulated along side other forms of paper money, such as ordonnances and bills of exchange, which both represented larger sums of money. By the fall of New France in 1760, it was estimated that about one million livres (about 41,600 British pounds) was still in circulation, and was only redeemed at a fraction of the value. This left the settlers of New France with little confidence in the use of paper money.