Awarded annually, where merited, by the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, from a list of candidates nominated by any Department, School or Institute, to an graduate student in the second or subsequent year of study. Application is not required, but eligible students will be researching and writing his or her thesis on a subject related to numismatics, which is the art, science, and history of coins, medals, tokens, paper money and related financial instruments. Research and writing may be in any area of study, for example the numismatics of Canada, fine art and money, banking history, the history of collecting, metallurgy and money, and economic history.Established in 2012 in memory of Bernie O’Connor who was a lifelong collector who specialized in the specie of pre-Confederation Canada. Through an endowment to the J. Douglas Ferguson Historical Research Foundation, his generosity has established a number of scholarships available at Canadian universities to pursue research related to numismatics.