Catalog
1 Dollar = 5 Shillings
| Issuer | Bank of British North America |
|---|---|
| Year | 1852 |
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| Printer | Perkins, Bacon & Co., London |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | FIVE SHILLINGS BRANTFORD THE BANK OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER Secured by deposit of Provincial Securities This Bank will pay the Bearer on demand ONE DOLLAR at BRANTFORD 1st Dec. 1852 Nº 25444 & NOT ELSEWHERE |
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| Reverse lettering | Countersigned and Registered in the Office of the Inspector General Register |
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| Comments |
The Bank of British North America was chartered in London in 1836 and operated as a British imperial institution with branches across the Canadian provinces — a fundamentally different animal from the locally chartered colonial banks it competed against. This note's dual denomination, one dollar equated to five shillings, reflects the genuinely messy monetary reality of mid-19th century British North America, where Halifax currency, York currency, and U.S. dollar values all circulated simultaneously and merchants routinely dealt in multiple systems within a single transaction.
By 1852 the pressure to decimalize was already building — the Province of Canada would adopt the decimal dollar just one year later in 1853, rendering the shilling equation on notes like this one obsolete almost immediately.