Catalog
1 Dollar = 5 Shillings
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835 |
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| Value | 1 Dollar |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is engraved in a classical early nineteenth-century North American bank note style, with a central portrait vignette of a male figure set within an oval frame, flanked by large numeral '1' counters on each side. To the left is a small oval vignette of a pastoral or wilderness scene, while to the right a dynamic equestrian vignette depicts a helmeted figure on horseback. The issuer's name 'BANK OF MONTREAL' appears in bold letterpress across the centre, with bilingual text in English and French stating the promise to pay Five Shillings Halifax Currency and Une Piastre, dated Montreal 1st January 1835. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | No image of the reverse is available for description. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was chartered in 1817 and is Canada's oldest chartered bank — this 1835 note predates Confederation by more than three decades, issued when the Province of Lower Canada still operated under a dual currency system that made the dollar/shilling equivalence printed on the face a practical necessity rather than a curiosity. Sterling-minded British settlers thought in shillings; American traders and merchants thought in dollars. The bilingual denomination was a commercial compromise.
Early Bank of Montreal notes from this period are genuinely rare survivors. Paper currency in Upper and Lower Canada circulated hard and wore out fast, and redemption drives in the mid-nineteenth century pulled most examples out of existence.