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!
100 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| 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 | Rectangular |
| 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) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Oval intaglio portrait of P. Howland at left, set within an elaborate guilloche border. Central vignette bears the denomination numeral '100' within an intricate lathe-work underprint, flanked by large 'C' letters; bank title across top, date 'Nov. 1st 1923' and place 'Toronto' below. Red 'SPECIMEN' overprint and zeroed serial numbers indicate specimen status; signature lines for President and General Manager appear at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in olive-green, the reverse centres on a circular vignette of a lion passant guardant atop an imperial crown, executed in fine intaglio. Denomination counters '100' appear in guilloche ovals to either side, with 'ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS' in a scroll cartouche along the lower border. The bank title 'IMPERIAL BANK OF CANADA' runs across the top within an elaborate lathe-work frame. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 Imperial Bank of Canada was a mid-tier chartered bank operating primarily in Ontario and the western provinces — never the largest player in Canadian banking, which makes its higher-denomination notes correspondingly scarce today. By 1923, Canadian chartered bank note circulation was already in managed decline; the Bank Act revisions of 1944 would eventually extinguish the private-issue system entirely, but through the 1920s these notes remained legal tender for the issuing bank's liabilities.
A $100 face value placed this firmly in commercial and interbank use rather than retail circulation. The Canadian Bank Note Company printed for dozens of chartered institutions during this period, and the Ottawa plant's output was generally consistent — but high-denomination notes from smaller issuers like Imperial were produced in limited runs and saw correspondingly less handling. Survivors in any grade are genuinely uncommon.