The Zimmerman Bank was a private commercial bank founded by Samuel Zimmerman, a contractor who made his fortune building sections of the Great Western Railway in Upper Canada. His banking operation was never formally chartered — it operated on the strength of his personal credit and business connections, which made these notes legally dubious instruments even at the moment of issue. Zimmerman himself died in the Desjardins Canal railway disaster of March 1857, and the bank collapsed shortly after.
The Elgin and Clifton branches (PS-2067 and PS-2072 respectively) were essentially the same plate with altered payable location text — a common and cost-saving arrangement among wildcat-era private issuers.
The Zimmerman Bank was a private commercial bank founded by Samuel Zimmerman, a contractor who made his fortune building sections of the Great Western Railway in Upper Canada. His banking operation was never formally chartered — it operated on the strength of his personal credit and business connections, which made these notes legally dubious instruments even at the moment of issue. Zimmerman himself died in the Desjardins Canal railway disaster of March 1857, and the bank collapsed shortly after.
The Elgin and Clifton branches (PS-2067 and PS-2072 respectively) were essentially the same plate with altered payable location text — a common and cost-saving arrangement among wildcat-era private issuers.