Catalog
1 Dollar
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1862 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The central vignette presents two allegorical figures flanking a shield, with a seated female figure to the right holding a cornucopia; an oval portrait of Queen Victoria in profile occupies the lower left. The denomination ONE DOLLAR is inscribed across the centre, with branch overprints CODERICH in blue and QUEBEC in red, and the date 1862 Aug. 1 in the lower central area. Lathe-work guilloche panels frame the serial number fields at both left and right, with the American Bank Note Co. imprint at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANK OF MONTREAL FOR VALUE Received ONE ONE DOLLAR CODERICH QUEBEC 1862 Aug. 1 For the Bank of Montreal AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. CAPITAL $1,500,000 CAPITAL $6,000,000 INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was already Canada's oldest chartered bank when this note was issued, and by 1862 it had long been printing through American Bank Note Company in New York — a common arrangement for colonial and early Canadian institutions that lacked domestic security printing infrastructure of comparable sophistication. ABNC's engraving quality at this period was among the finest available anywhere, and the bank leaned on that relationship consistently through the mid-nineteenth century.
Pick S508 falls within a private commercial issue predating Confederation by five years. Dominion currency would not displace chartered bank notes until decades later.