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20 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Nova Scotia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#S628 |
| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by a central vignette of fishermen in a dory on open water, rendered in fine intaglio engraving, flanked symmetrically by large ornate numeral '20' counters set within intricate guilloche underprint in green and red. The bank title 'THE BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA' arcs across the upper portion in bold letterpress, with 'DOMINION OF CANADA' inscribed along the top border. Place and date of issue 'HALIFAX, N.S.' and 'January 2nd, 1903' appear in the lower left and right respectively, with red serial numbers at upper left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark green and red-orange on a dense guilloche ground, with the bank's circular corporate seal at centre bearing a sailing vessel and the inscription 'INCORPORATED 1832.' Large bold numeral '20' counters appear at left and right within ornate lathe-work frames. The legends 'THE BANK OF' at top and 'NOVA SCOTIA' at bottom are set within cartouches formed by interlocking vine-scroll borders. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Nova Scotia was one of the few Canadian chartered banks to maintain an aggressive branch expansion into the Caribbean and Central America during the early 1900s, and its note issues of this period reflect a institution operating across genuinely different monetary environments simultaneously. The American Bank Note Company in New York handled production for numerous Canadian chartered banks at this time, as domestic Canadian security printing capacity was still limited.
Chartered bank notes in Canada circulated as a parallel currency system alongside Dominion notes until the Bank of Canada's establishment in 1934 finally began displacing them. The 1903 date places this squarely in the period before the 1907 financial panic reshaped North American banking confidence.