LOT Geoffrey Bell Auctions  /  Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale 2024  / 

500

1875 Treaty 5 Medal.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25,000.00 CAD Estimated At:25,000.00 - 35,000.00 CAD
1875 Treaty 5 Medal.

Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out after all sessions of the Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale have concluded.

1875 Treaty 5 Medal. McLachlan-30, Leroux-1191, Breton-29, Jamieson-38. 76mm. 198g. Plain edge. Signed J.S. & A.B. WYON. Original hanger and suspension loop at 12 o’clock. NGC Photo-Certificate included (PR64). In recent years, the Canadian Numbered Treaty medals have rightfully gained recognition for not just their numismatic significance but increasingly for their historical and cultural importance. They are rare tangible artifacts of the relationship between the Canadian government and this country’s First Nations. Geoffrey Bell Auctions is delighted to present this remarkable Treaty 5 medal as one of the signature offerings of our May 2024 Toronto Coin Expo sale.
According to The Canadian Encyclopaedia, “Treaty 5 — also known as the Winnipeg Treaty — was signed in 1875–76 by the federal government, Ojibwe peoples and the Swampy Cree of Lake Winnipeg. Treaty 5 covers much of present-day central and northern Manitoba, as well as portions of Saskatchewan and Ontario.” The treaty represented an exchange of 259,000 square kilometres of land for, among other things:

• “five dollars for each man, woman and child belonging to the bands here represented, in extinguishment of all claims heretofore preferred;”
• “the sum of five hundred dollars per annum shall be yearly and every year expended by Her Majesty in the purchase of ammunition, and twine for nets, for the use of the said Indians…;”
• “Two hoes for every family actually cultivating; also one spade per family as aforesaid; one plough for every ten families as aforesaid; five harrows for every twenty families as aforesaid; one scythe for every family as aforesaid, and also one axe; and also one cross-cut saw, one hand-saw, one pit-saw, the necessary files, one grindstone, and one auger for each band; and also for each Chief, for the use of his band, one chest of ordinary carpenter's tools; also for each band enough of wheat, barley, potatoes and oats to plant the land actually broken up for cultivation by such band; also for each band one yoke of oxen, one bull and four cows all the aforesaid articles to be given once for all for the encouragement of the practice of agriculture among the Indians;’
• “each Chief duly recognized as such shall receive an annual salary of twenty-five dollars per annum, and each subordinate officer, not exceeding three for each band, shall receive fifteen dollars per annum; and each such Chief and subordinate officer as aforesaid shall also receive, once every three years, a suitable suit of clothing;”
• And perhaps most importantly for our purposes, “each Chief shall receive, in recognition of the closing of the treaty, a suitable flag and medal.”
The terms of Treaty 5, like other other numbered treaties, specifically stipulated that each Chief was entitled to a medal like the one offered here. Archival documents from the Department of Indian Affairs show that the Canadian government ordered 150 medals from the Wyon firm on March 17, 1875 at a cost of $24 per piece and that they were used for all the numbered Treaties between 1871 and 1877. It appears that more were ordered at a later date, but the exact quantity remains unknown to this cataloguer. As for how many Treaty 5 medals exist today, we have been able to trace one to the W.H. Hunter Collection, two for Ford, one to the Manitoba Museum, and three to Donald G. Partrick for a total of seven confirmed, though it is certain that others exist in either private hands, institutional collections, or both.
The present example is by far the finer of the two Ford representatives. Offered as a Choice Proof, it was described by the cataloguer in 2007 as “Lovely gray, light gold and iridescent blue over brightly reflective surfaces. Once cleaned. Tiny edge bruise at right obverse. Very rare.” So it remains. We expect spirited bidding when this important offering crosses the block.
Ex: J. Douglas Ferguson; Michael Kolman (12/24/1955); John J. Ford, Jr. Collection Part XVIII (Stack’s, 5/2007), lot 21; Anthony Terranova.
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