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4 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Brantford, Brantford |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 4 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Green intaglio note printed by the American Bank Note Company, with the numeral '4' in each upper corner flanked by intricate guilloche borders. A central vignette portrays an industrial or mill complex with horse-drawn wagons in the foreground, rendered in fine engraved detail. To the lower left is a portrait medallion of a bearded gentleman, and to the lower right a portrait of a young woman, with the issuer's name 'BANK OF BRANTFORD' and the denomination 'FOUR DOLLARS' inscribed in bold letterpress across the centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANK OF BRANTFORD FOUR DOLLARS BRANTFORD CAPITAL $1,000,000 American Bank Note Company Will pay FOUR DOLLARS to bearer on demand INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Brantford was a short-lived Upper Canadian institution, and this note dates from the period immediately following the 1857 Free Banking Act in Canada West, which permitted new banks to issue notes against deposited securities. The American Bank Note Company in New York handled the printing work for numerous Canadian chartered and free banks during this period — the engraving quality was generally superior to anything available domestically, which is why so many small provincial banks crossed the border for their currency production.
The 4-dollar denomination is characteristically North American. It traces directly to the Spanish milled dollar's fractional arithmetic, where 4 dollars equaled one Spanish doubloon — a convention that lingered in Canadian private bank currency well past the point of practical relevance.