Catalog
1 Pound
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of New Brunswick, St. John |
|---|---|
| Year | 1850-1853 |
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| Value | 1 Pound |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out in a typeset letterpress style with large numeral "1" vignettes at the left and right corners and a central circular vignette bearing an arms or seal device. The upper margin carries the inscription "£1 CURRENCY" and a serial number field at right, while the main body reads "THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF NEW-BRUNSWICK" with the promise text "promise to pay ONE POUND Currency on demand" above the issuing location "ST. JOHN, N.B." Signature lines for the President and Directors are printed below the central vignette, with manuscript signatures completing the obligation. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a large, intricate guilloche pattern composed of five overlapping circular lathe-work rosettes arranged in a horizontal band across the centre of the plain paper field, with no additional vignettes or printed text apart from the counter-stamped legend "COMMERCIAL BANK" set within the central guilloche element. |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of New Brunswick was chartered in 1834 and operated out of Saint John as one of several competing colonial chartered banks in the province. By the early 1850s, these institutions issued their own notes freely — New Brunswick had no central regulatory authority imposing uniformity, which meant individual banks set their own redemption terms and maintained their own specie reserves, with varying degrees of public confidence.
Provincial chartered bank notes from this period were frequently refused or discounted when presented outside the issuing bank's immediate territory. Saint John merchants dealing across the border into Maine or up into Quebec would have known this note's limitations well.
The bank was eventually absorbed following New Brunswick's 1867 Confederation into the Dominion, after which federally chartered institutions displaced the old colonial issuers entirely.