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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on white paper with a central vignette of two seated Indigenous figures facing one another; portrait medallions of two bank officials appear at the left and right margins, each rendered in fine line engraving. The denomination numeral '5' occupies each upper corner within ornate guilloche work, and serial numbers are printed in red at centre-left and centre-right. The legend 'BANK OF MONTREAL' arches across the upper border, with the date inscription 'Montreal, 23rd January 1904' placed below the central vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green intaglio, the reverse centres on an architectural vignette of the Bank of Montreal's head office, its neoclassical columned facade rendered with fine engraving detail and street-level figures at ground level. Large guilloche oval medallions bearing the numeral '5' flank the central vignette on both sides, set within intricate lathe-work borders. The bank title 'BANK OF MONTREAL' is inscribed along the upper margin, with 'Five Dollars' in serif letterpress along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was the oldest chartered bank in Canada and functioned informally as the government's banker for much of the nineteenth century, a relationship that gave its notes an unusual degree of public confidence. By 1904, Dominion notes were already competing aggressively with chartered bank currency, and this issue entered circulation during the transitional decade before the 1914 Finance Act would begin curtailing private bank note privileges entirely.
The American Bank Note Company's Ottawa facility — not its New York headquarters — handled production, a detail worth noting given that most ABNC-printed Canadian chartered bank paper from this period tends to be attributed to the U.S. operations without verification.