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20 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark green and black intaglio on white paper, with a complex guilloche border carrying repeated '20 TWENTY' numerals and text. Two oval portrait vignettes are positioned at left and right, each showing a distinguished gentleman in formal attire. The central field carries the large 'Bank of Montreal' title in ornate lettering, with the legend 'WILL PAY TO BEARER ON DEMAND' and 'PAID UP CAPITAL $14,000,000' across the top. A central underprint vignette displays the bank's coat of arms, flanked by large 'XX' counters at lower corners, with the date 'MONTREAL, 3RD JANUARY 1904' and two manuscript signatures across the centre. |
|---|---|
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| Signature(s) | Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor and Vincent Meredith |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was Canada's oldest chartered bank, and by 1904 it effectively functioned as the government's fiscal agent — a role that gave its notes unusual credibility and wide acceptance across the country at a time when Dominion notes and chartered bank currency still circulated side by side. The American Bank Note Company in New York produced much of the high-end Canadian chartered bank paper of this period, and the quality of the intaglio work on these issues reflects that competitive printing market.
The Dominion government's 1944 revision of the Bank Act ultimately ended chartered bank note issue entirely, making all surviving pre-war private bank notes terminal artifacts of a genuinely plural currency system.