Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Home Bank of Canada, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904-1920 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black with a pink-red underprint. At upper centre, the bank title 'THE HOME BANK OF CANADA' is set in bold letterpress. A portrait vignette at left centre shows Sir Isaac Brock in military uniform, identified by a caption beneath. To the right of centre, an allegorical vignette presents a seated female figure beside a globe and industrial implements. Large guilloche numerals '5' appear at both lower left and lower right, with the denomination 'FIVE DOLLARS' in a central panel. The note is dated March 19, 1904, with printed signature lines for President and Countersigned below. |
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| Reverse lettering | THE HOME BANK OF CANADA. FIVE FIVE FIVE |
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The Home Bank of Canada holds a grim distinction in Canadian banking history: it was the only chartered bank to collapse in the twentieth century, failing in August 1923 and wiping out thousands of depositors — many of them Catholic immigrants in Ontario and the Prairie provinces who had trusted the institution specifically because of its close ties to the Toronto Catholic establishment. Notes from this series were still in circulation at the point of failure, leaving holders with worthless paper and no federal deposit protection, which did not yet exist.
The collapse directly prompted the 1924 revision of the Bank Act and early discussions about depositor insurance. The American Bank Note Company's Ottawa plant produced this series, one of the relatively few ABNC jobs executed on Canadian soil rather than at their New York facility.