Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1891 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#S525 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in green intaglio, the reverse centres on a detailed architectural vignette of the Bank of Montreal's head office building, rendered with classical Corinthian columns and a neoclassical façade. Large ornate '50' denomination counters appear to the left and right, framed by intricate guilloche latticework and floral rosette corner ornaments. The bank title 'BANK OF MONTREAL' arcs across the top, with 'Fifty Dollars' in a serif typeface below the central vignette and the printer's imprint 'AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK' at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | BANK OF MONTREAL Fifty Dollars AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Bank of Montreal was Canada's largest and most powerful chartered bank by the 1890s, and its note issues were treated with corresponding confidence — widely accepted far outside Quebec and used heavily in commercial trade. The American Bank Note Company in New York handled the engraving and printing for this series, as it did for most of the major Canadian chartered bank issues of the period. ABNC's work for Canadian clients during this decade was among their most technically accomplished.
Chartered bank notes continued to circulate legally in Canada alongside Dominion government issues until the Bank of Canada Act of 1934 finally phased them out — a remarkably long run for private currency.