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!
4 Dollars = 20 Shillings
| Issuer | Banque du Peuple |
|---|---|
| Year | 1847 |
| 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 | Black on white, with blue TORONTO overprint. Left vignette shows a seated carpenter, top centre-right carries a pastoral scene of milkmaids with cattle, and the right vignette presents a blacksmith at his forge. Signature varieties exist. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue, centred on an oval intaglio portrait vignette of a young woman within an elaborate foliate guilloche frame, flanked by large numeral 4 denominational counters on each side, also rendered in blue. |
| 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 Banque du Peuple was a Montreal cooperative credit institution founded in 1844 primarily to serve French-Canadian merchants and artisans who found themselves systematically excluded from credit at the English-dominated banks. The dual denomination — four dollars and twenty shillings simultaneously — reflects the genuinely awkward monetary reality of pre-Confederation Canada, where Halifax currency, York currency, and U.S. dollars all circulated in parallel, and a bank issuing only one denomination unit risked alienating half its customer base.
Toppan, Carpenter & Co. of Philadelphia was among the most respected security printers in North America at the time, later absorbed into the American Bank Note Company in 1858.