Catalog
4 Dollars = 20 Shillings
| Issuer | Agricultural Bank, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1834 |
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| Value | 4 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | The obverse bears the bold header AGRICULTURAL BANK across the top, with large numeral counters reading FOUR at each corner. A central allegorical vignette shows two female figures flanking a large numeral 4, one figure seated and one standing, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. Oval portrait medallions appear on the left and right margins, and the promise-to-pay text reads TWENTY SHILLINGS CURRENCY payable at the Office in Toronto, with a manuscript date of 1834 and the agents Messrs. Truscott, Green & Co. noted at the foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | AGRICULTURAL BANK FOUR TWENTY SHILLINGS CURRENCY We promise to pay at our Office in Toronto TWENTY Shillings Currency TORONTO Messrs Truscott Green & Co No |
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| Comments |
The Agricultural Bank of Toronto was chartered in 1834 and failed spectacularly in 1837 — one of several Upper Canadian banks brought down by the financial panic that swept North America that year. Notes from this institution had an extremely short window of actual circulation, and surviving examples are correspondingly rare. The dual denomination — four dollars expressed simultaneously as twenty shillings — reflects the uncomfortable monetary reality of pre-Confederation Canada, where British sterling accounting and the Spanish milled dollar both ran concurrently through daily commerce.
Rawdon, Wright & Hatch were among the premier security printers working out of New York at the time, responsible for a significant portion of private bank paper across the northeastern states and the Canadas.