The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a sterling silver New France $15 Jack of Hearts rectangle coin. The new coin, made available July 23, came in a third round of product issues from RCM.

As New France found itself short of circulation coinage in 1685, the government of the day demonstrated resourcefulness by seizing all playing cards in the colony and issuing officially signed cards as currency, bearing a written promise to pay what was owed when the next shipment of coins arrived from France. This temporary measure continued until the British conquest of 1759.

The RCM rekindles the "can do" aura of playing card money with this new Jack of Hearts coin, designed from artwork preserved by Library and Archives Canada. It is the first in a new series of painted rectangular collector coins featuring a selectively gold-plated rim.