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1 Louis/Pound 5 Chelins/Shillings = 5 Dollars
| Issuer | Banque du Peuple |
|---|---|
| Year | 1845 |
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| Value | 1 Louis |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in blue-grey and centers on a large ornamental numeral 5 flanked by two guilloche rosettes bearing the digit 5. A central vignette presents two figures — a seated male sailor and a female figure — posed beside the large 5 ornament against a lightly engraved background. The bank name LA BANQUE DU PEUPLE arches across the top in two lines. |
| Reverse lettering | LA BANQUE PEUPLE 5 |
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| Comments |
The Banque du Peuple had an unusual political character for a colonial-era bank: it was founded in 1835 largely by Patriote-sympathizing francophone merchants, and its early years were shadowed by the 1837–38 Lower Canada Rebellion. That it survived the rebellion and its aftermath at all is noteworthy. By 1845, the bank had stabilized enough to issue notes like this one, but it remained perpetually undercapitalized relative to its anglophone rivals and finally failed in 1895 after a fraud scandal involving its management.
The trilingual denomination — French, English, and a dollar equivalent — reflects Lower Canada's commercial reality, where transactions crossed currency systems routinely.