Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Colonial Bank of Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is engraved in the American Bank Note Company style, with a large allegorical vignette at the left depicting a seated woman with children and a spinning wheel, rendered in fine intaglio. The centre carries the bank title 'Colonial Bank of Canada' in bold letterpress, flanked by two ornate guilloche medallions bearing the numeral '5'. A portrait vignette of a young woman appears at the lower right, and the promise text 'Five Dollars to Bearer on demand' is inscribed in script across the centre field, with 'TORONTO' below and 'INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT' along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is largely unprinted, showing plain cream-coloured cotton paper with faint ghost impressions from the obverse printing visible through the sheet, consistent with the thin paper stock typical of mid-nineteenth-century Canadian chartered bank issues. |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank of Canada was a short-lived institution — chartered in 1856 and absorbed into the Canadian banking system before Confederation reshaped the financial order. This 1859 note represents one of the few denominations it actually placed into circulation, printed by the American Bank Note Company at a moment when ABNC was consolidating its dominance over Canadian chartered bank work, absorbing several smaller security printing firms through the late 1850s.
Pick #1670 is genuinely scarce. The bank's brief operating life meant limited print runs and little reason for the public to retain examples after redemption windows closed.