This complete three-piece set of Hyland & Belfry tokens includes:

1.) 50c. Hill-L7310b. Struck in aluminum. 31mm. 2.6g. Medal alignment. Bright and partially flashy despite corrosion from improper storage, as always.

2.) $1.00. Hill-L7310c. Struck in aluminum. 38mm. 5.1g. Reverse rotated 90 degrees. Strongly struck with bold rims and complete denticles. Like the 50c, this piece is largely bright and flashy but shows evidence of bubbling.

3.). $10.00. Hill-L7310e. Struck in brass. 31mm. 7.7g. Reverse rotated about 45 degrees. Glossy, lightly worn surfaces show areas of gunmetal and reddish patina. Slightly soft along the upper obverse border and corresponding area on the reverse.

Major Sheldon S. Carroll discovered these tokens in February 1953 while on military duty at Watson Lake, Yukon. According to Carroll, “First information concerning them came from an R.C.M.P. corporal and the local parish priest.” A small cache of 50c, $1.00, and $10.00 tokens was found in the cellar of a private residence on the site of the former Hyland & Belfry trading post building in Liard Post, BC (now Lower Post), just south of the Yukon border along what is now the Alaska Highway. Per Carroll, “All aluminum specimens were more or less corroded from the long burial in ground, but the brass ones persisted in their excellent state of preservation.”

The following is an excerpt from Carroll’s March 1962 C.N. Journal article on the Hyland & Belfry Tokens:

Robert Hyland Sr. went into the Cassiar District of northwestern British Columbia during the early 1870s to prospect for gold. He was among a few survivors on Scurvy Creek in the Liard region, and the Hyland River there derives its name from him. About 1907 he became a trader in mining supplies and opened a post at Telegraph Creek. Shortly afterwards his two sons, John and Robert Jr., came west from Ontario. Following the death of Robert Hyland, Sr., his eldest son John took over the business and enlarged it in partnership with Arthur Belfry.

The new firm of Hyland & Belfry went on to open three more posts: one by Porter’s Landing at the lower end of Dease Lake, one for McDame’s Creek, and the third in Liard Post (now Lower Post). Supplies passed over the Dease Lake trail by pack horse and then down the Dease River to Lower post on scows operated by hand. John Hyland subsequently bought out Arthur Belfry and carried on the business alone until his death in 1913. Robert Hyland Jr. sold these trading posts to the Hudson’s Bay Company but continued in the transportation business up until his passing in 1940.