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5 Dollars Canadian Bank of Commerce
| Issuer | Canadian Bank of Commerce |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse lettering | THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE / WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND / FIVE DOLLARS / CURRENCY AT ITS BRANCH IN PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD / 5 DOLLARS IN TRINIDAD CURRENCY / PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD / 1ST MARCH 1921 / PRESIDENT / GENERAL MANAGER |
| Reverse description | Central vignette in green intaglio presents the circular bank seal of the Canadian Bank of Commerce flanked by two standing allegorical figures: Mercury at left, wearing a winged helmet and holding a caduceus, and a female figure at right bearing a sheaf of wheat; both figures clasp hands over the seal. The Royal Arms appear above the group, while elaborate guilloche rosettes enclosing the numeral 5 occupy the left and right fields, and the word 'FIVE' is lettered in a panel below the central vignette. |
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| Comments |
The Canadian Bank of Commerce was one of the major chartered banks operating under the Bank Act, which permitted private note issue well into the twentieth century — Canada didn't centralize currency issuance under the Bank of Canada until 1935, and chartered banks retained the right to circulate their own notes until 1950. The 1921 series came at a complicated moment: post-war deflation had hammered commodity prices, and western agricultural regions were under serious financial strain.
The American Bank Note Company operated a Ottawa plant specifically to handle Canadian chartered bank work, keeping sensitive currency printing domestic rather than routing it through their New York facility as had been common in earlier decades.