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 | 1887 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| 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) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The obverse is executed in a fine intaglio style typical of late 19th-century Canadian chartered bank issues. At upper centre, the bank title 'THE Bank of Hamilton' is set in bold lettering, flanked by large numeral '5' counters at each corner, with a lathework guilloche border running along all edges. A portrait vignette of a bearded gentleman occupies the lower left, while a complex allegorical group vignette with figures and an ornate scroll occupies the right side, and a central circular guilloche medallion bears the denomination numeral '5'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE Bank of Hamilton Five Dollars HAMILTON 5 FIVE |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 to serve the commercial needs of a city that had just lost the provincial capital to Toronto and was determined to build financial infrastructure to compensate. It remained an independent Ontario chartered bank until 1923, when the Canadian Bank of Commerce absorbed it — one of the consolidations that quietly ended the era of smaller regional charters in Canada.
The British American Bank Note Company had established its Montreal operation in 1866, and by the 1880s held the bulk of Canadian chartered bank printing contracts. Their work on Hamilton's issues from this period is technically accomplished, with tight geometric lathe work that was state of the art for anti-counterfeiting at the time.
Pick 447 is the standard reference, but surviving examples in any grade are infrequently encountered at auction.