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1 Dollar
| Issuer | Bank of British North America |
|---|---|
| Year | 1838 |
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| Value | 1 Dollar |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on white paper. The bank's heraldic crest vignette occupies the centre, flanked by script promise-to-pay text. Oval medallions at upper corners bear bilingual denomination inscriptions; the lower border carries the imprint LOWER CANADA in letterpress. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANK OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ONE DOLLAR We Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at our Bank in MONTREAL ONE DOLLAR for value received For the Directors & Company LOWER CANADA UN PIASTRE ONE DOLLAR $1 $ONE |
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| Comments |
The Bank of British North America was chartered by royal charter in 1836 and operated branches across the British North American colonies — an unusual structure for the period, more akin to a British joint-stock bank than a colonial issuer. This 1838 dollar note comes from the bank's earliest years of operation, before the colonial monetary system had settled into anything resembling coherence.
Perkins, Bacon & Co. in London produced the plates, as they did for a significant portion of early colonial North American paper. The firm's steel-engraving technique was chosen specifically for its anti-counterfeiting properties — a genuine concern in the 1830s colonies, where crude local forgeries circulated alongside legitimate notes with some regularity.
Pick S311 survivors from this early issue are genuinely uncommon.