DCHP-1 Online

beaver skin Fur Trade

• 1 n. the pelt of the beaver as a staple of the fur trade; specifically, the pelt on which the long, outer guard hairs remain.

  See also: beaver (def. 3)  

  • 1671  (1942)  That Mr. Rastell take care to putt up publick bills upon the Exchange tomorrow morneing for the sale of lb.3000 weight of beaver coates and skins. . . .
  • 1744  They love Pruins and Raisins, and will give a Beaver Skin for twelve of them to carry to their children. . . .
  • 1958  The beaver skin has gone through many vicissitudes apart from clothing the beaver. . . . In its latest phase it is a "sheepskin" or parchment. This was the inspiration of the Canadian Citizenship Council which wanted a symbolic award for distinguished services in the field of citizenship.

• 2 n. a unit of exchange equivalent to the value of one prime beaver pelt, used in buying furs and bartering provisions, more usually referred to be trappers as a skin (def. 1).

  See also: made beaver (def. 1)  skin (def. 1)  

  • 1744  Standard of Trade carried on by the Hudson's Bay Company at Albany Fort, Moose River, and the East Main, as it stood in the Year 1733, Beaver Skins being the STANDARD.
  • 1896  I made him understand that I had no doubt of his willingness to go with me; that it was merely a matter of beaver-skins between us, and I was prepared to pay him liberally.
  • 1963  They had to pay twenty beaver skins to the Indian who brought him [a strayed horse] in.