2 Dollars

The Commercial Bank of Newfoundland collapsed in December 1894, one of two Newfoundland banks that failed simultaneously in a crisis triggered by a sharp drop in fish prices and the cascading exposure of over-extended credit. The failure wiped out deposits and left outstanding notes unredeemable — a catastrophe for a colony whose economy ran almost entirely on credit extended against the cod trade. Notes issued before the collapse, including this 1888 printing, were never called back for redemption.

The British American Bank Note Company had been printing for Newfoundland institutions since the 1870s, and their Montreal presswork on this series is technically clean. Surviving examples frequently show evidence of actual use — the island's small, tight-knit commercial economy meant these notes passed through relatively few hands repeatedly rather than through large-volume urban circulation.