Catalog
10 Dollars
| Issuer | Macdonald & Co. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | MACDONALD & CO. BANKERS. ESTABLISHED 1859 Victoria VANCOUVERS ISLAND. We promise to pay the Bearer on demand at our Office here the sum of Ten Dollars for value received 6 Sept 1863 10 |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, presenting plain cream-coloured cotton paper aged to an uneven buff tone with pronounced fold lines and surface wear consistent with genuine circulation; no vignettes, typeset lettering, or design elements of any kind are present. |
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| Comments |
Macdonald & Co. operated as private bankers in Victoria, British Columbia, during the Fraser River and Cariboo gold rush years, issuing their own notes at a time when no chartered bank had yet established a reliable presence in the colony. Private banking paper of this kind was legally precarious — British Columbia had no formal framework for private note issue, and the Hudson's Bay Company's own currency monopoly ambitions created friction with any competing paper circulating in the interior.
Tith Bremner & Co. in San Francisco handled a number of small-run private issues for Pacific Northwest merchants and bankers who had no access to eastern engravers. The firm's output was competent but modest in scale, and surviving examples from any of their clients are genuinely uncommon.
Macdonald & Co. failed before Confederation; redemption was never guaranteed.