Canada — Issue of 1870-1872

The first government paper money of the Dominion of Canada: notes under the act of 1870, for 25 cents, 1 and 2 dollars, together with large notes for 500 and 1,000 dollars dated 1871 and 50 and 100 dollars dated 1872. They were printed by the British American Bank Note Company.

The 25-cent note with Britannia, nicknamed the “shinplaster”, was meant as a temporary stand-in for silver change, yet such notes lasted for more than half a century. The 1 dollar carries a portrait of Jacques Cartier, and the 2 dollars Generals Wolfe and Montcalm, opponents in the battle for Quebec in 1759, with a chief between them looking at a train marked “Nor’West”. The city where the note could be exchanged for coin is named on the back: Montreal, Toronto, Saint John, Halifax or Victoria, the Victoria notes being the rarest. Of the large denominations, not a single complete 100, 500 or 1,000-dollar note survives.