Catalog
20 Dollars
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Newfoundland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Reverse description | Entirely engraved in green, the reverse displays two large octagonal guilloche medallions bearing the denomination numeral "20" flanking a central oval bearing the bank seal inscribed "COMMERCIAL BANK OF NEWFOUNDLAND"; the whole surrounded by an intricate lathe-work border. |
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| Variants | P#S116(1) - issued note P#S116(2) - redemption overprint FOUR DOLLARS |
| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of Newfoundland collapsed in December 1894, one of two St. John's banks that failed simultaneously in a catastrophic run triggered by the Union Bank's difficulties — an event that wiped out savings across the colony and is still referred to locally as the Bank Crash of 1894. Notes issued years earlier, including this 1888 series, became worthless overnight. The bank had no central government backstop; Newfoundland was not yet a Canadian province, and the Colonial Treasury's intervention came too late to save depositors.
The British American Bank Note Company had been printing for Canadian and colonial institutions since 1866, and by the 1880s was the dominant security printer in the region. Surviving examples from this issue are scarce — most commercial paper from failed colonial banks was either surrendered during the crash or destroyed in the great St. John's fire of 1892, which preceded the bank failure by two years and had already destabilized the colony's economy.