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4 Dollars
| Issuer | Dominion of Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1902 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 185 x 90 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black and green intaglio on white paper. At centre, a large vignette presents a steamship docked at a wharf with loading cranes and harbour infrastructure rendered in fine engraved detail. To the left is an oval portrait of a woman wearing a tiara and formal dress, and to the right an oval portrait of a uniformed military officer. The denomination FOUR DOLLARS appears in bold letterpress at top and bottom, with DOMINION OF CANADA arched across the upper centre, and the date January 2, 1902 at upper right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in green intaglio. A large central vignette presents the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa viewed from the river, surrounded by dense foliage and with the Peace Tower complex rendered in fine engraved line work. Flanking the central scene on both left and right are ornate guilloche panels incorporating the numeral 4 and the word FOUR repeated in a decorative border pattern. |
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| Comments |
The $4 denomination was never common in Canadian banking practice and survives today in only a handful of series. Its existence here traces to a straightforward tax avoidance mechanism: Dominion notes of $1, $2, and $5 attracted a federal stamp duty, so private chartered banks had long issued $4 notes to sidestep the $5 threshold. By the time the Dominion itself was issuing $4 notes, the denomination was already an anachronism carrying that workaround logic into official government paper.
ABNC operated a Canadian branch in Ottawa from the 1890s onward, which is why the imprint reads as a domestic production rather than a New York job. The 1902 issue is scarce in any grade; most examples that surface show heavy circulation wear, suggesting these actually moved through commerce rather than being preserved from the start.