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5 Dollars/Piastres
| Issuer | La Banque Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black and orange intaglio-printed note with the bank title 'LA BANQUE NATIONALE' across the upper register, flanked by numeral '5' counters within ornate guilloche medallions. A central vignette presents a steam locomotive traversing a rural landscape, while at lower left a portrait vignette of a period gentleman in Elizabethan-era attire and at lower right an allegorical figure with a globe. The bilingual denomination inscription 'FIVE DOLLARS / CINQ PIASTRES' appears in the central panel with 'QUEBEC' and a manuscript date, above two manuscript signatures above the designations 'PRO GERANT' and 'PRESIDENT'. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green, the reverse is divided into three principal sections: two large circular guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral '5' at left and right, each surrounded by repeated 'FIVE' lettering in the border registers. The central panel carries the bank name 'LA BANQUE NATIONALE' at top and 'NATIONALE' at base, enclosing an oval allegorical vignette of a seated female figure surrounded by symbols of commerce, agriculture and industry within an elaborate engraved frame. The printer's imprint of the British American Bank Note Company, Montreal, appears at the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
La Banque Nationale was a Quebec-chartered institution headquartered in Quebec City, and this 1897 issue predates its 1924 merger with Banque d'Hochelaga to form Banque Canadienne Nationale. The dual French and English denomination — Dollars and Piastres — reflects the commercial reality of operating across language lines in late-19th-century Quebec, where "piastre" remained the common vernacular term regardless of official monetary nomenclature.
The British American Bank Note Company had relocated its operations from Ottawa to Montreal by this period, and the S-prefix Pick reference places this firmly in the chartered bank issues rather than Dominion or provincial government paper. Chartered bank notes in Canada remained legal tender until 1935, giving notes like this an unusually long potential circulation window.