Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Merchants Bank of Canada, Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S1165 |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | MONTREAL Feb. 1st 1916 CAPITAL $1,000,000 THE MERCHANTS BANK OF CANADA WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND FIVE DOLLARS INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT, DOMINION OF CANADA FIVE DOLLARS |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in green and displays an elaborate guilloche pattern composed of interlocking rosette and lathe-work medallions surrounding a central vignette of a bear, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The legend THE MERCHANTS BANK OF CANADA is arched above the central vignette, with OF CANADA below, and the numeral 5 appears in large ornate panels at the left and right within the geometric underprint. The note was printed by the British American Bank Note Company, Ottawa, as indicated in small lettering at the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Merchants Bank of Canada was already in decline by 1916 — it would be absorbed by the Bank of Montreal in 1922 in one of Canada's more ignominious bank failures, leaving shareholders with heavy losses. Notes from the final decade of the bank's operation were still legal private banknotes under the Bank Act, which permitted chartered banks to issue their own currency in denominations of five dollars and above.
The British American Bank Note Company had been printing Canadian chartered bank issues from its Ottawa plant since the 1860s and handled most of the major bank relationships in the country by the time this note was produced. The P#1165 designation places this firmly within the BABN's wartime production period, when engraving staff and materials were under pressure from military printing contracts.