Catalog
20 Dollars
| Issuer | Canadian Bank of Commerce, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in orange-brown intaglio, the reverse is dominated by the central vignette of the Canadian Bank of Commerce armorial seal — a sailing ship within a circular legend — flanked by two standing allegorical figures, one holding a caduceus and one holding a sheaf of wheat, with cornucopiae and agricultural implements in the lower corners. The denomination numeral 20 appears in large format at both left and right, with the word TWENTY inscribed beneath the central seal. |
| Reverse lettering | BANK OF COMMERCE TWENTY 20 |
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| Comments |
The Canadian Bank of Commerce was one of Canada's dominant chartered banks, and its 1917 series was issued against the backdrop of wartime finance — Dominion currency controls were tightening, and chartered bank notes were heading toward eventual phase-out under the 1944 Bank of Canada consolidation. The American Bank Note Company's New York facilities handled production for numerous Canadian chartered institutions during this period, a long-standing arrangement that predated the war by decades.
Chartered bank notes of this era are prone to edge splits and paper brittleness along fold lines — a known weakness of the cotton stock used by ABNC for Canadian clients in the mid-to-late 1910s.