Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Western Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is engraved in the classical mid-19th-century American Bank Note Company style, with a portrait vignette of a gentleman in period dress at the left margin and a central allegorical vignette of a mounted figure in combat, rendered in fine intaglio line work. Numeral counters "5" appear in lathe-work medallions at the upper left, upper right, and lower corners, with the word FIVE in bold letterpress at both the far left and far right edges. The issuer's name BANK OF WESTERN CANADA and the denomination FIVE DOLLARS are inscribed in prominent engraved lettering across the centre, below which appears the clause INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT, with a capital figure of $1,000,000 noted; a seated female allegorical figure occupies the lower right corner. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in red ink on plain cotton paper, bearing the word FIVE in large bold serif letters, printed in mirror image (retrograde orientation) as a back-printing security device intended to show through to the obverse. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Western Canada was chartered in 1859 to operate out of Clifton, Ontario — directly across the Niagara River from the American side — a location chosen deliberately to facilitate cross-border trade. The bank never actually opened for business. Its notes were printed but never issued, as the bank failed to meet the paid-up capital requirements under Canadian banking law before it could commence operations.
That makes every surviving note from this series remainders: unissued, unsigned, and uncirculated by definition. The American Bank Note Company retained examples in their own reference archive, which accounts for much of what surfaces today.