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5 Pounds / 20 Dollars Commercial Bank of Newfoundland, Written value
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Newfoundland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1874 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5£ 5£ COMMERCIAL BANK OF NEWFOUNDLAND TWENTY DOLLARS We promise to pay the Bearer on Demand FIVE POUNDS Currency in SPECIE. SAINT JOHNS. 1st Jan / 1874 |
| Reverse description | Plain white paper with a faint red guilloche underprint band across the centre and scattered light offset impressions from the obverse. No printed design or lettering is present, consistent with the blank reverse typical of this issue. |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of Newfoundland was chartered in 1857 and operated as one of two locally incorporated banks on the island, the other being the Union Bank. The dual denomination — 5 Pounds and 20 Dollars printed on the same note — reflects Newfoundland's awkward monetary reality: the colony used both sterling and Halifax currency simultaneously, and merchants demanded instruments that functioned in both systems without conversion arithmetic.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch had engraved Newfoundland's postage stamps since 1865, which likely explains the banking relationship. The Commercial Bank failed in 1894 during the island's catastrophic banking collapse, when both local chartered banks suspended payments within days of each other — an event that effectively ended Newfoundland's experiment with indigenous banking for a generation.