1 Dollar

The Bank of British North America was a London-chartered institution operating branches across British North America, and the Victoria branch opened just as the Fraser River Gold Rush was transforming the region from a quiet fur-trade outpost into a chaotic boomtown. This note was issued into that environment — one where American gold dust, Hudson's Bay Company scrip, and U.S. greenbacks all competed for acceptance alongside British colonial paper.

Pick 396 is among the earliest locally-issued banknotes from what would become British Columbia, predating Confederation by over a decade. The colony of British Columbia itself wasn't formally proclaimed until August 1858, making this 1859 date extraordinarily early for institutional paper currency from the Pacific Northwest.