Catalog
100 Dollars
| Issuer | Canadian Bank of Commerce, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black and green on white paper, the obverse centres on a large allegorical vignette of classical female figures symbolising commerce and industry, framed by intricate guilloche panels with the numeral 100 at each corner. The legend THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE arcs across the upper margin in bold letterpress, with ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS rendered in large intaglio letters at centre below a royal cypher device. The date TORONTO, 2ND JUNE, 1917 appears beneath the denomination, with two manuscript signatures of bank officers at the lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE WILL PAY TO BEARER ON DEMAND ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS TORONTO, 2ND JUNE, 1917 100 |
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| Comments |
The Canadian Bank of Commerce was one of the few chartered banks still issuing its own currency into the late 1910s — the 1944 Bank Act amendments would eventually end that practice entirely, but in 1917 the chartered banking system remained the primary source of circulating paper. Notes of this denomination served commercial transactions, not retail ones, and high-value chartered bank issues from wartime Canada survive in small numbers simply because they moved through fewer hands.
The American Bank Note Company had a long relationship with Canadian chartered institutions, producing plates of consistently high intaglio quality. This note predates the bank's 1961 merger into the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by over four decades.