Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Banque d'Hochelaga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Dark blue-black intaglio print on white paper. The central vignette presents an allegorical group in sculptural style, with a seated female figure attended by two smaller figures, likely representing Commerce or Prosperity. Flanking oval portrait medallions appear at left and right, each containing a bust portrait of a bank official, with ornate guilloche underprint numerals "V" in green at either side. The bilingual date "Montreal Jan. 2nd 1917 / Montreal le 2 Jan. 1917" appears above the central vignette, with the serial number "1168661" printed twice, and the bottom border carries the denomination legend "FIVE DOLLARS CINQ" in letterpress. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE D'HOCHELAGA MONTREAL JAN. 2ND 1917 MONTREAL LE 2 JAN. 1917 WILL PAY TO BEARER ON DEMAND PAIERA AU PORTEUR A DEMANDE FIVE DOLLARS CINQ PRESIDENT CONTRESSIGNE 5 |
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| Comments |
The Banque d'Hochelaga was a Montreal-based francophone institution founded in 1873 to serve Quebec's working-class and merchant communities — a deliberate counterweight to the anglophone banks that dominated Canadian commercial finance. By 1917, wartime demand had strained the Dominion's currency supply considerably, and chartered bank notes of this type remained legal tender in Canada long after most countries had consolidated note issue under central authority.
The ABNC produced plates for dozens of Canadian chartered banks during this period, and the Hochelaga series shares production lineage with several contemporaries. The bank itself was absorbed into the Banque Canadienne Nationale in 1924, ending its independent note-issuing history.