On a bitterly cold night in February 1916, as Members of Parliament debated the fishing industry inside Ottawa’s Centre Block, flames began to creep through the House of Commons Reading Room. Within hours, the Great Fire would reduce the heart of Canada’s Parliament to a blackened shell, claiming seven lives and toppling the iconic Victoria Tower. Yet amid the devastation, one structure stood defiant – and with it, the foundation of Canada’s national numismatic heritage.
The Library of Parliament survived because of a decision made four decades earlier. At the urging of Canada’s first parliamentary librarian, Alpheus Todd, the library had been physically separated from the Centre Block and protected by massive iron fire doors. When the blaze erupted, library clerk Michael MacCormac ordered those doors shut, sealing off the circular reading room and safeguarding its contents from destruction.
Among the treasures preserved that night were rare coins from what would later become the National Currency Collection (NCC). At the time, the library housed the government’s early coin holdings, including material from the famed Gerald Hart Collection – a remarkable assemblage of Dominion, provincial and early Canadian issues acquired in 1880.
Had the fire breached the iron doors, Canada’s foundational public coin collection might have been lost forever. Instead, the survival of the library ensured that key pieces of the nation’s early monetary record endured, allowing future generations to study, catalogue and expand upon what would become the country’s official currency collection.
The 1916 inferno ultimately reshaped how Canada preserved its monetary heritage. Following Parliament’s reconstruction, the coins were removed from the library and eventually transferred to what is now Library and Archives Canada before finding a permanent home at the Bank of Canada, where the NCC was formally established.
As the Library of Parliament prepares to mark its 150th anniversary in 2026, its dramatic survival stands not only as a symbol of parliamentary resilience but also as a pivotal moment in Canadian numismatics – a night when fire threatened to erase the nation’s coinage history, and foresight ensured it would endure.
Delve into this historic story in the latest issue of Canadian Coin News, Vol. 63 No. 25, released today (Feb. 17, 2026).