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2 Dollars = 10 Shillings
| Issuer | Bank of Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper. Upper-left vignette of an Indigenous woman, central upper vignette of sailing ships at sea, and upper-right vignette of an Indigenous brave drawing a bow and arrow. Note bears signature varieties. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | DEUX PIASTRES / TWO DOLLARS |
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| Comments |
The 1837 dating places this note squarely in the worst year of the Financial Panic — a cascading crisis that began with Andrew Jackson's Specie Circular of 1836 forcing land payments in hard coin, which drained specie reserves across North American banks almost simultaneously. The Bank of Montreal, one of the more conservative institutions in British North America, survived the panic intact while dozens of American banks suspended payments entirely.
The dual denomination — dollars alongside shillings — reflects the genuinely bilingual monetary reality of Lower Canada at the time, where Halifax currency and U.S. dollars both circulated alongside Spanish milled dollars. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. were among the most capable bank note engravers working in New York during this period, later forming the nucleus of the American Bank Note Company in 1858.