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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Merchants Bank of Canada, Montreal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Dark green and black intaglio-printed note with a central portrait vignette of a uniformed military officer set within an ornate frame. Large numeral "V" underprints appear in green on both the left and right fields, flanking the portrait, with matching red serial numbers printed above each. The bank title "THE MERCHANTS BANK OF CANADA" is engraved in bold lettering across the top, with the date "1ST NOV. 1919" and place of issue "MONTREAL" inscribed below the portrait. Two manuscript signatures of bank officers appear along the lower margin, with their titles "GENERAL MANAGER" and "PRESIDENT" printed beneath. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | FI5VE FI5VE THE MERCHANTS BANK OF CANADA 5 5 5 5 |
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| Comments |
The Merchants Bank of Canada was already in serious trouble by 1919 — it would be absorbed by the Bank of Montreal in 1922 after a collapse driven by bad loans and mismanagement under E.S. Clouston's successors. Notes of this issue therefore had an unusually short practical window, and many were recalled and destroyed during the merger. The American Bank Note Company's Ottawa plant, which had taken over Canadian chartered bank printing from the New York operation after the First World War, handled the production.
Survivors in any grade are proportionally scarce given the issuer's abrupt end.