Catalog
1 Dollar / Piastre
| Issuer | La Banque Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1860 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | LA BANQUE NATIONALE CHARTERED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT INCORPORÉE PAR ACTE DU PARLEMENT ONE ONE This Bank will pay / Cette Banque payera ONE DOLLAR / UNE PIASTRE to the bearer on demand / au porteur à demande Value received QUEBEC |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in a uniform pale rose-pink ink on plain paper, with no central vignette or major design elements visible; the surface bears handwritten endorsement notations in ink, consistent with period banking practice for circulated notes of this era. |
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| Comments |
La Banque Nationale was chartered in 1859 and opened in Quebec City in January 1860, making this among its earliest paper issues. The bank was founded largely to serve francophone commercial interests in Lower Canada at a time when the major chartered banks — Bank of Montreal, Bank of Upper Canada — were perceived as anglophone institutions indifferent to French-Canadian merchants and agricultural traders.
The dual-denomination format, Dollar and Piastre on a single note, was a practical necessity: Quebec commercial life operated in both English and French accounting conventions simultaneously, with piastre and dollar treated as equivalent but not always interchangeable in local usage.
The "S" prefix in the Pick reference indicates this note is catalogued as a private or semi-official issue, not a government-authorized legal tender note — an important distinction for the period before Confederation.