Catalog
1 Dollar
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1858-date) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in green and black, with a central guilloche panel overprinted with the branch name CORNWALL in large blue letters. At left, an oval intaglio vignette portrays a crowned young Queen Victoria in portrait bust, while at right a classical allegorical female figure reclines in a pastoral vignette. The denomination ONE DOLLAR is set within an ornate lathe-work panel at centre, with the date and place of issue reading '1859 Jan. 3. MONTREAL 3 Jan. 1859' inscribed below; serial number and charter capital figures appear in the margins. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in green, dominated by a large central medallion bearing an intaglio equestrian vignette of St. George slaying the dragon, surmounted by the inscription BANK OF MONTREAL in a ribbon cartouche. Two flanking scalloped lathe-work rosettes, each carrying the word ONE in bold relief, are set symmetrically on either side of the central medallion against a fine engine-turned guilloche background. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was already the dominant commercial bank in British North America by 1859, and notes of this period were circulating across Upper and Lower Canada well before Confederation imposed any standardizing pressure on colonial currency. The American Bank Note Company, formed in 1858 through the merger of seven competing security printers, had barely begun operations when this note was produced — making it among the earliest issues from that consolidated firm.
Dollar-denominated notes from pre-Confederation Montreal occupy an awkward transitional moment: the Province of Canada had officially adopted the decimal dollar standard only in 1858, displacing the old Halifax currency system. This note is a direct product of that shift.