Catalog
2 Dollars = 10 Shillings
| Issuer | St. Lawrence Bank and Lumber Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black intaglio on white cotton paper in the style typical of Lower Canadian private bank issues of the 1830s, the obverse presents a central vignette of a steam-powered paddle wheeler on the St. Lawrence River, flanked by two oval medallions each bearing the numeral TWO, with corner vignettes of a beaver at lower left and a deer at lower right evoking the issuer's lumber and natural resources associations. The arched legend ST. LAWRENCE BANK AND LUMBER COMPY appears above the promise-to-pay clause and the triple denomination statement TWO DOLLARS / TEN SHILLINGS / DEUX PIASTRES, with the place of issue given as Malton, Lower Canada. The date 25th May 1837 and serial number are entered in manuscript, consistent with hand-completion practices of the period. |
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| Obverse lettering | TWO REAL ESTATE PLEDGED Malton, Lower Canada ST. LAWRENCE BANK AND LUMBER COMPY Will pay J. Fraser or bearer on demand TWO DOLLARS TEN SHILLINGS DEUX PIASTRES |
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| Comments |
The St. Lawrence Bank and Lumber Company was not a bank in any conventional regulatory sense — it was a lumber operation that issued scrip because specie was simply unavailable in the remote timber regions of Upper Canada during the 1837 monetary crisis. That year, failures among American banks triggered a suspension of specie payments that cascaded north, leaving frontier workers with no practical medium of exchange. Company scrip filled the void.
The dual denomination — dollars on one face, shillings on the other — reflects the genuinely mixed monetary arithmetic of pre-Confederation Canada, where American dollars and British sterling circulated simultaneously and conversion was a daily practical necessity, not a formality.