Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of Canada, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S1145E |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | IMPERIAL BANK OF CANADA WILL PAY TO BEARER ON DEMAND TORONTO, 1st NOV. 1934 FIVE DOLLARS FIVE GENERAL MANAGER PRESIDENT CANADIAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, LIMITED |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green intaglio, the reverse is centred on a large circular vignette of a lion statant guardant atop a royal crown, enclosed within an elaborate guilloche border, with the bank title IMPERIAL BANK OF CANADA arcing across the top of the central frame. Bold numerals 5 occupy the left and right panels within ornate lathe-work cartouches, while the denomination FIVE DOLLARS is lettered in serif capitals along the lower margin. The printer's imprint CANADIAN BANK NOTE COMPANY LIMITED appears at the base. |
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| Comments |
The Imperial Bank of Canada was absorbed into the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in 1961, making its note issues a finite series. By 1934, privately issued Canadian banknotes were already on borrowed time — the Bank of Canada Act passed the following year and the central bank opened in 1935, after which chartered banks lost their exclusive right to issue small-denomination currency. This note was printed in the last window before that monopoly ended.
The Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa handled the bulk of chartered bank printing through this period, and the quality of their intaglio work on late Imperial Bank issues is among the cleaner examples in the series. P#1145E denotes a specific signature combination within the 1934 type.