The Magdalen Island penny token was a token that was originally issued for use on that island and throughout Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces in the early 19th century. This token was issued in 1815 by Sir Isaac Coffin, who was granted the island by the British government in reward for his loyalty to the crown during the American Revolutionary War. While not a rare coin, it is hard to find in anything but worn condition, and even prices for pieces in the lowest grades tend to start at about at about C$100 and go up rapidly from there. History The Magdalen Islands (Fr. Îles de la Madeleine) form a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of 205.53 square kilometers (79.36 sq mi). Though closer to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, the islands form part of the Canadian province of Quebec. While there were boundary disputes between Labrador and Lower Canada over the islands, their inhabitants were largely French and the islands were transferred to Lower Canada by the Quebec Act of 1774. Sir Isaac Coffin (16 May 1759 – 23 July 1839) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In 1787 he began operating in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and took a particular interest in the Magdalen Islands. He warned the governor's council that New Englanders were exploiting the fisheries in the gulf and were trading illegally with the inhabitants of these islands. Coffin, an American loyalist who had been deprived of his patrimony by the outcome of the War of Independence, was granted the islands in 1798 for his good service. Coffin planned to set up a feudal system on the Magdalen Islands, and he distributed the coins on the only occasion he visited the island. His attempts to attract settlers or evict the squatters who had arrived from Saint Pierre and Miquelon were unsuccessful. The local populace resented his authoritarian ways, with the cry of "Fouettez King George and King Coffin!" ("Whip King George and King Coffin"), as he was leaving the island. While it has been said that the penny token was little used by the islanders, the tokens were clearly well-circulated as few examples are available in higher grades. Evidently many were shipped to Nova Scotia, as contemporary newspaper articles from