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25 Dollars = 25 Piastres
| Issuer | British Army |
|---|---|
| Year | 1813 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#S118B |
| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed bill on plain paper, with a royal arms vignette in the upper left corner. The bilingual heading reads '25 D. ARMY BILL. 25 P.' followed by denomination lines in both English and French, with the body text in English detailing the bearer's entitlement to receive Twenty-five Dollars in Government Bills of Exchange or cash at the option of the Commander of the Forces, bearing interest of one farthing per day. The bill is countersigned by both the Cashier and Director of the Army Bill Office, Quebec, with registration noted in the Office of the Military Secretary. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#S118B - 17.04.1813 P#S118B - 15.06.1813 P#S118B - 02.03.1814 |
| Comments |
Army Bills were a wartime fiscal instrument, not a bank product. Authorised under the Army Bills Act of 1813, they were issued by the British military administration in the Canadas to fund the War of 1812 against the United States, at a time when specie was almost entirely absent from circulation. The bills bore interest — the smaller denominations at a fixed rate — and were accepted for government payments, which underpinned their credibility in a colony with no chartered bank until 1817.
The bilingual denomination pairing reflects the practical reality of Lower Canada's population. Printed in Quebec by order of the Commissariat, they were eventually redeemed at par, one of the few wartime paper issues in North American history to be fully honoured without depreciation.