Catalog
5 Piastres/Dollars
| Issuer | La Banque Nationale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S871 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green intaglio on white paper with an elaborate guilloche framework enclosing the entire composition. Two large numeral '5' vignettes occupy the left and right panels within intricately lathe-worked rosette frames. At centre, an oval allegorical vignette depicts a seated female figure in a pastoral landscape, surrounded by a circular legend. 'LA BANQUE NATIONALE' is inscribed at the top and 'CINQ PIASTRES' appears along the lower centre, with the printer's imprint of the British American Bank Note Company at the base. |
| Reverse lettering | LA BANQUE NATIONALE CINQ PIASTRES 5 BRITISH AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. LIMITED |
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| Comments |
La Banque Nationale was a Quebec-chartered institution, founded in 1859 and headquartered in Quebec City, that operated throughout French Canada until its merger with Provincial Bank in 1979. The 1922 series was printed by the British American Bank Note Company in Ottawa, which had been the dominant supplier of Canadian commercial bank notes since the 1870s and handled production for most chartered banks issuing under the Bank Act.
The dual denomination — piastres and dollars — reflects Quebec's bilingual commercial reality. "Piastre" was the standard French-Canadian term for the dollar unit well into the twentieth century, and its inclusion on chartered bank notes was a practical concession to a largely francophone customer base, not a separate monetary unit.