Catalog
1 Pound = 4 Dollars
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Newfoundland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1874-1884 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S109 |
| Obverse description | Central vignette of an allegorical female figure representing Commerce seated before a sailing ship, flanked by two oval guilloche medallions each enclosing a codfish. The £1 denomination appears in ornate cartouches at upper left and right, with FOUR DOLLARS in bold letterpress across the centre. The bank title arcs along the top border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COMMERCIAL BANK OF NEWFOUNDLAND FOUR DOLLARS Accountant Manager |
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| Comments |
Perkins, Bacon & Co. printed for an extraordinary range of colonial and quasi-colonial issuers throughout the nineteenth century, but the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland represents a particularly constrained case: Newfoundland maintained its own currency system — quoting values in both pounds sterling and dollars simultaneously — because local commerce demanded it. The dual denomination was functional, not ceremonial, reflecting the genuine parallel use of British and North American accounting in the colony's merchant trade.
The bank itself collapsed in December 1894 during a devastating run that wiped out both major Newfoundland commercial banks within days of each other, an event severe enough to effectively end independent banking on the island for decades.