Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Hamilton |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#S442 |
| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on white paper with a green underprint. At upper centre, the bank title 'Bank of Hamilton' appears in bold serif lettering, with serial number '20509' at upper left and right. A portrait vignette of a gentleman in formal Victorian dress occupies the lower left. To the right of centre, a large guilloché-bordered numeral '5' panel is flanked by a classical allegorical vignette of two standing figures beside a building. The denomination 'Five Dollars' is inscribed in a bold central panel above the place name 'HAMILTON', with a manuscript date and two facsimile signatures of the Cashier and President at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANK OF HAMILTON 5 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Bank of Hamilton was chartered in 1872 under the Bank Act of that year — this note dates to the very first years of operation, when the bank was still establishing its footing as a regional commercial institution in southwestern Ontario. The British American Bank Note Company, newly formed itself in 1866 through the merger of two earlier firms, was by this point the dominant supplier of chartered bank currency in Canada, handling production for several institutions simultaneously out of Montreal.
The Bank of Hamilton would ultimately survive until 1924, when it was absorbed by the Canadian Bank of Commerce during the wave of consolidations that followed the collapse of the Home Bank. Notes from this early 1872 issue are rarely encountered; attrition over five decades of active banking was considerable.