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20 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of Canada, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1933 |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-engraved obverse with IMPERIAL BANK OF CANADA in bold letterpress across the top, centred below which is a portrait vignette of a bespectacled male figure in formal attire, flanked by large Roman numeral XX cyphers rendered in a pale gold underprint. Ornate guilloche medallions bearing the numeral 20 occupy both lateral margins, with the inscription TORONTO, NOV. 1ST 1933 positioned below the portrait. The lower panel carries TWENTY DOLLARS in large serif lettering, with signature titles GENERAL MANAGER and PRESIDENT at lower left and right respectively, and the printer's imprint CANADIAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, LIMITED along the bottom edge. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, consisting of plain cream-coloured cotton paper bearing pencil manuscript notations consistent with the trial nature of the piece; no engraved or formally printed design elements are present on this side. |
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| Comments |
The Imperial Bank of Canada was one of the smaller chartered banks still issuing its own currency in 1933, a practice that would end permanently with the Bank of Canada Act of 1934 — which established the central bank and set a ten-year phase-out period for chartered bank notes, with legal tender status finally withdrawn in 1945. This 1933 issue was among the last the Imperial Bank would authorize.
The Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa printed for most of the remaining private issuers in this period. Imperial Bank notes from the early 1930s are genuinely scarce in any grade, as depression-era hoarding and the eventual redemption program removed most examples from circulation permanently.