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4 Dollars = 20 Shillings
| Issuer | Accommodation Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of seated Justice holding a lance, with a lion at her side, flanked by four numeral-4 corner counters with lathework panels. Text panels at left and right reference shareholders and real estate pledges. Issuer title "THE ACCOMMODATION BANK" across top, place of issue "Upper Canada" and payable at "Kingston". Unsigned remainder. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE ACCOMMODATION BANK / Upper Canada / BANK / Will pay the bearer Twenty Shillings, twelve months after date, in Specie or Current Bank Notes, for value rec. / Kingston / Cash. / Pres. |
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| Comments |
The Accommodation Bank was one of dozens of short-lived American free banking institutions that proliferated after Andrew Jackson's 1832 veto of the Second Bank of the United States charter. Without federal oversight, state-chartered and wildcat banks issued their own notes freely, and many — like this one — collapsed within years of opening, leaving noteholders with worthless paper.
Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. were among the most prolific banknote engravers of the antebellum period, supplying plates to hundreds of institutions across the country, solvent and otherwise. The dual denomination — 4 Dollars equated to 20 Shillings — reflects the transitional monetary arithmetic still in use in parts of the northeastern United States in 1837, where sterling reckoning had not yet fully given way to decimal currency in daily commerce.