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50 Dollars
| Issuer | Bank of British Columbia, Victoria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1894 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red-orange on a cream ground, the reverse is dominated by a large guilloche numeral panel at centre displaying the serial number in oversized digits. The corners each carry the numeral '50', and an intricate geometric lathe-work border frames the entire face. 'BANK OF BRITISH COLUMBIA' is inscribed across the top, with 'FIFTY DOLLARS' along the lower margin. |
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| Variants | S219p - proof S219a - issued note |
| Comments |
The Bank of British Columbia was a London-incorporated institution that operated branches across the province and into San Francisco, functioning more as an imperial commercial bank than a regional one. By 1894, it was already in a weakened position — the bank was absorbed by the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1901 after years of struggling against better-capitalized eastern rivals.
A $50 note from a British Columbian chartered bank of this period would have seen almost no ordinary retail circulation; denominations of this size moved between merchants, mining operations, and correspondent banks. Surviving examples are genuinely rare. The American Bank Note Company held engraving contracts across dozens of North American issuers simultaneously, and plates were sometimes shared or adapted between clients — worth checking against comparable ABNC issues of the same decade.