Catalog
10 Dollars
| Issuer | Colonial Bank of Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE COLONIAL BANK OF CANADA WILL PAY TEN DOLLARS TO BEARER ON DEMAND TORENTO CAPITAL $2,000,000 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT 10 Cash Pres |
| Reverse description | The reverse is largely plain, printed on the back of the cotton paper sheet with only ghost impressions of the obverse design visible through the note. A partial numeral counter '10' is discernible at the lower right, with faint letterpress text running across the centre, consistent with the unelaborate reverse treatment typical of mid-nineteenth century Canadian chartered bank issues. |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank of Canada was a short-lived institution — chartered in 1856 under the Province of Canada, it never achieved the foothold its promoters anticipated and was absorbed before Confederation reshaped the banking landscape entirely. Notes from this issuer are genuinely rare precisely because so few ever entered meaningful circulation; the bank's operational life was too brief to distribute its paper widely.
The American Bank Note Company imprint dates this to the New York firm's early consolidated period, following the 1858 merger of several competing security printers. ABNC work from this window is identifiable by its transitional engraving style — the merger brought together plate craftsmen from previously rival shops, and consistency across the new firm's output took several years to settle.