1 Pound

The Bank of British North America was chartered by the British Crown in 1836 specifically to operate across multiple provinces — an unusual structure for the period, when most colonial banks were tied to a single chartered territory. This note dates to the bank's first year of active operation. Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the dominant security printers of the era, their steel-engraving technique developed originally for banknote work in the United States before Perkins relocated the firm to London in 1819.

1837 was a catastrophic year for North American banking generally — the Panic of 1837 triggered widespread specie suspension across the continent. How the BBNA navigated that first crisis shaped its reputation for the decades that followed.