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5 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque d'Hochelaga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1874 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by a central vignette of a steam locomotive with rolling stock passing through an industrial landscape, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. To the upper left, a large numeral '5' in green is set within a lathe-work guilloche panel, with the serial number in red below; to the right, a portrait of a bearded gentleman is engraved in the lower right corner. The bank title 'BANQUE D'HOCHELAGA' runs in bold letters across the centre, with the denomination 'CINQ PIASTRES' and the inscription 'Province de Quebec' appearing above, all surrounded by an ornate border of repeated numeral '5' counters. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | PROVINCE DE QUEBEC BANQUE D'HOCHELAGA CINQ PIASTRES Montreal CAISSIER PRESIDENT British American Bank Note Co Montreal |
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| Comments |
The Banque d'Hochelaga was founded in 1873 to serve Montreal's French-Canadian commercial community — a deliberate counterweight to the anglophone-dominated banking establishment. This 5 Piastres note, issued in its first full year of operation, belongs to the earliest chapter of that institution, which would eventually become the Banque Canadienne Nationale in 1924 after merging with the Banque Nationale.
The British American Bank Note Company, established in Ottawa in 1866 and later relocating to Montreal, was by this point the dominant security printer for Canadian chartered bank issues. The use of "Piastres" rather than "Dollars" on a Quebec-issued note reflects the linguistic politics of the period — French-Canadian banks maintained the older French monetary terminology well into the 1870s despite the 1871 Uniform Currency Act standardizing the dollar across the Dominion.