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10 Dollars = 2 Pounds-10 Shillings
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 18xx |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#S479 |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper. Vignettes of sailing ships at upper and lower left flank a central composition with a griffin alongside allegorical male and female figures. Issuer name MONTREAL is engraved in the plate. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Blue-grey underprint in letterpress. Octagonal denomination counters bearing '10' at left and right, with 'TEN' in large bold letters at base. Central guilloche ornament flanked by scrollwork, with BANK OF MONTREAL arched at top and promise text reading 'Ten Pounds Two Shillings Currency' in manuscript-style lettering across the center field. Cancellation punch holes along the lower edge. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal, chartered in 1817, was the dominant commercial institution in British North America for much of the nineteenth century, and its dual-denomination notes reflect the uncomfortable coexistence of sterling and dollar reckoning in pre-Confederation Canada. The equivalence of $10 to £2-10s was fixed at the colonial rate of $4 to the pound, a convention that persisted until decimal currency was formally adopted across the Province of Canada in 1858.
Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. in New York were the principal security printers for most major Canadian banks during this period — the irony of colonial institutions sourcing their paper currency from American engravers was not lost on contemporaries.