1937 Series (banknotes)

Last updated

The 1937 Series was the second series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada. The banknotes were issued into circulation on 19 July 1937, [1] at which time the Bank of Canada began gradually removing banknotes from the 1935 Series from circulation. [2] The $1000 banknote was issued several years later, as it was primarily used by chartered banks, which had a sufficient supply of the 1935 Series $1000 banknote. [3]

Banknotes of the Canadian dollar

Banknotes of the Canadian dollar are the banknotes or bills of Canada, denominated in Canadian dollars. Currently, they are issued in $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations. All current notes are issued by the Bank of Canada, which released its first series of notes in 1935. The current series of polymer banknotes were introduced into circulation between November 2011 and November 2013. Banknotes issued in Canada can be viewed at the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa.

Bank of Canada Canadas central bank

The Bank of Canada is a Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the Bank of Canada Act, it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy, and for the promotion of a safe and sound financial system within Canada. The Bank of Canada is the sole issuing authority of Canadian banknotes, provides banking services and money management for the government, and loans money to Canadian financial institutions.

1935 Series (banknotes)

The 1935 Series was the first series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada. They were first circulated on 11 March 1935, the same day that the Bank of Canada officially started operating. Two sets of banknotes were printed for each denomination, one in French for Quebec, and one in English for the rest of Canada. This is the only series issued by the Bank of Canada with dual unilingual banknotes.

Contents

This was the first series of bilingual Canadian banknotes, [4] as the 1935 Series was a dual-language series with French banknotes issued in Quebec and English banknotes issued in the rest of Canada. [2] This series was created because of the introduction of the Bank of Canada Act, which required Canadian banknotes to be bilingual. [5] In this series, English was always on the left.

<i>Bank of Canada Act</i>

The Bank of Canada Act is a statute that sets out the governance structure and powers of the Bank of Canada, which was created in 1934 as Canada's central bank.

With the exception of the $50 and $1000 notes, the colours introduced to the notes on this series remain to this day (or until they were no longer produced).

Background

In the House of Commons on 2 June 1936, Conservative member of parliament Thomas Langton Church protested against the requirement of bilingual banknotes in the Bank of Canada Act, stating there was no authority for it in the British North America Act, and that it had not been an issue during the 1935 federal election. [6] He favoured printing dual-language banknotes (distinct English and French banknotes) as had been done for the 1935 Series. [6] Other conservative members of the 18th Canadian Parliament, such as Robert Smeaton White, supported the Liberal Party of Canada majority government of William Lyon Mackenzie King to print bilingual banknotes. [6]

House of Commons of Canada Lower house of the Canadian Parliament

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.

Thomas Langton Church Canadian politician

Thomas Langton "Tommy" Church was a Canadian politician.

1935 Canadian federal election

The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935. to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R. B. Bennett's Conservatives.

The death of George V on 20 January 1936 was another factor for the Bank of Canada to introduce a new series of banknotes. [7] It created designs for new banknotes incorporating the portrait of Edward VIII, but when he abdicated on 11 December 1936 in order to marry Wallis Simpson, the Bank of Canada rushed to prepare new designs. [7] These used portraits of King George VI, who ascended the throne on 11 December 1936. [5]

George V King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.

Edward VIII King of the United Kingdom and its dominions in 1936

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December of that year.

Edward VIII abdication crisis

In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King-Emperor Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing the divorce of her second.

Banknotes

The banknotes retain the "classical elements of the design" of the 1935 Series, and the reverse of most banknote denominations retain the allegorical themes and figures of the 1935 Series. [8] The design of these banknotes has greater uniformity and consistency than the 1935 Series, with the obverse having a framed numeral in the top corners and the written value of each denomination framed in the lower corners, with English on the right and French on the left. [9] The allegorical figures have the same frame in each denomination, unlike the 1935 Series, and are flanked by a large framed numeral representing the denomination's value. [3]

Obverse and reverse Front and back side of coins, medals, orders of merit, and paper bills

Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails.

In 1938, the designs were modified to mitigate printing problems of the original design, increasing the width of the signature panel by 2.4 mm. [10] All banknotes in the series measure 152.4 by 73.025 millimetres (6.000 by 2.875 in).

DenominationFace ImageBack ImageColourFaceBackPrintedIssued
$1 1937-1-bank-of-canada-face.jpg 1937-1-bank-of-canadaback.jpg Green King George VI Agriculture allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$2 1937-2-bank-of-canada-face.jpg 1937-2-bank-of-canadaback.jpg Terra cottaKing George VIHarvest allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$5 1937-5-bank-of-canada-face.JPG 1937-5-bank-of-canadaback.JPG BlueKing George VIElectric power allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$10 1937-10-bank-of-canada-face.jpeg 1937-10-bank-of-canadaback.jpeg PurpleKing George VITransportation allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$20 1937-20-bank-of-canada-face.JPG 1937-20-bank-of-canadaback.jpeg Olive greenKing George VIFertility allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$50 1937-50-bank-of-canada-face.jpg 1937-50-bank-of-canadaback.jpg OrangeKing George VIModern Inventions allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$100 1937-100-bank-of-canada-face.JPG 1937-100-bank-of-canadaback.JPG Sepia John A. Macdonald Commerce and industry allegory2 January 193719 July 1937
$1000 1937-1000-bank-of-canada-face.JPG 1937-1000-bank-of-canadaback.JPG Rose pink Wilfrid Laurier Security allegory2 January 1937January 1952

Each denomination had a distinct colour, and this set of denomination colours would be used for all subsequent banknote series. [9] The Bank of Canada modified the colours used from the 1935 Series in part to address the issue that some banknotes could not be easily distinguished in low light. [9] This was particularly problematic for the $1 and $2 banknotes, which The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle of Trois-Rivières stated in an article that the green hue of the $1 banknote and the blue hue of the $2 banknote made the obverse appear similar, and that the more distinct colours of the reverse could be "confused in artificial light". [11] The Bank of Canada chose to design the $2 banknotes using a terracotta red called "sanguine" as its dominant colour, and also changed the colour of the $5 banknote to blue, [9] [10] the $20 banknote to olive green, the $50 banknote to orange, [12] and the $100 banknote to the same tint of sepia used for the 1935 Series $500 banknote. [13]

Portraits

The series only contained three portraits, which were centrally positioned on the obverse of the banknote on which they were included to accommodate the introduction of bilingual text. [9] The portrait of George VI wearing an admiral's uniform appearing on six of the banknotes was based on a photograph taken by Bertram Park, for which an engraving was made by Robert Savage of ABN. [14] [15] [7] It had been used on the $50 banknote of the 1935 Series. [9] The two exceptions were the $100 banknote, which had the same portrait of John A. Macdonald as the 1935 Series $100 banknote, and the $1000 banknote, which had the same portrait of Wilfrid Laurier as the 1935 Series $100 banknote. [16] [13]

Allegories

The allegorical figure on the $1 banknote was the same as that on the 1935 Series $1 banknote, depicting an agricultural theme. [10] It was based on a painting by Alonzo Foringer of the American Bank Note Company (ABN). [17] The $2 banknote contains the same harvest allegory that appeared on the 1935 Series $10 banknote, and was engraved by Harry P. Dawson of the British American Bank Note Company (BABN, now BA International). [10]

The $5 banknote has the same electric power generation allegory that appeared in the 1935 Series $5 banknote, and the $10 banknote has the same transportation allegory as the 1935 Series $2 banknote, represented by a winged figure of the Roman mythological character Mercury. [18] The same fertility allegory that was on the 1935 Series $500 banknote, based on another painting by Foringer, was used on the $20 banknote of this series. [12] [19] The modern inventions allegorical figure on the $50 banknote, industry allegorical figure of the $100 banknote, and security allegorical figure of the $1000 banknote were the same as those used on the same denomination in the 1935 Series. [12] [13]

Printing

Engravings of the banknotes were created and subsequently transferred to steel rollers by rocking the rollers back and forth over the engraved die. After being hardened, the design was transferred to a master printing plate, which for the 1937 Series contained 24 copies of the engraved image. This process is known as siderography. [20] The original plates, dies, and rolls for this series were destroyed by the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) after the modified version of the series was created in 1938. [20]

The Canadian Bank Note Company printed the $1, $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes, and the British American Bank Note Company printed the $2, $5, and $10 banknotes. [21]

Legacy

Ultimately, the "production of bilingual notes was widely endorsed by parliamentarians and by the public". [7]

Because the colour of the $5 banknote was changed to blue, the Bank of Canada "recalled and cancelled 3,644,000" of the 1935 series blue $2 banknotes to avoid confusion. [9] The $2 banknotes were rarely used in Western Canada as that denomination had "never been popular" there [22] since its use in the 1920s as the standard price for a prostitute along the "notorious River Street hotel strip" in Moose Jaw, earning it the nickname Moose Jaw money. [23] This denomination would be shunned by many in Western Canada until the 1990s, when $2 banknotes of the Birds of Canada series became increasingly accepted. [23]

By 1940, C$ 495,946,232 worth of banknotes were in circulation, of which C$ 379,000,000 was held by the public and the remainder by chartered banks. [24] This reflected an increase of C$ 95,000,000 in 1940 and C$ 109,000,000 in 1941. [24] Most denominations had a static circulation pattern, with increasing scarcity for successively larger denominations. The $2 banknote, however, had no discernable pattern of use, fluctuating from abundance to scarcity. [22] In January and February 1949, for example, Montreal and Toronto experienced large spikes (also referred to as "jags") in the use of $2 banknotes for financial transactions, and as the spike subsided over two weeks, another one appeared in Ottawa. [22] The Bank of Canada made an official statement about the phenomenon, for which it could provide no explanation, stating that the $2 banknotes "come like migratory birds and disappear like the lemmings". [22]

A memorandum written by Donald Gordon, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, stated a preference to produce a new series of banknotes every five years to "obstruct any attempt at wholesale counterfeiting", but the plan was abandoned because of World War II. [25]

Notes

  1. Milwaukee Journal 1937.
  2. 1 2 Milwaukee Journal 1937, p. 7.
  3. 1 2 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 40.
  4. Cross 1997, p. 193.
  5. 1 2 Bank of Canada.
  6. 1 2 3 The Ottawa Evening Citizen 1936, p. 5.
  7. 1 2 3 4 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 37.
  8. Currency Museum.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 38.
  10. 1 2 3 4 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 43.
  11. The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle 1935, p. 2.
  12. 1 2 3 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 45.
  13. 1 2 3 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 46.
  14. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 26.
  15. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 34.
  16. Powell, p. 30, Establishment of a central bank.
  17. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 31.
  18. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 44.
  19. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 28.
  20. 1 2 The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 42.
  21. Cuhaj 2010, p. 189The printing companies are identified as CBNC (Canadian Bank Note Company) and BABNC (British American Bank Note Company) in the source document.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Swanson 1949, p. 1.
  23. 1 2 Toronto Star 1990, p. A26.
  24. 1 2 The Ottawa Evening Citizen 1942, p. 17.
  25. The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes 2006, p. 47.

Related Research Articles

Singapore dollar official currency of Singapore

The Singapore dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is divided into 100 cents. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. The Monetary Authority of Singapore issues the banknotes and coins of the Singapore dollar.

The rupee is the currency of Mauritius. One rupee is subdivided into 100 cents. Several other currencies are also called rupee.

The leone is the currency of Sierra Leone. It is subdivided into 100 cents. The ISO 4217 code is SLL and the leone is abbreviated as Le placed before the amount.

Vietnamese đồng Currency of Vietnam

The đồng has been the currency of Vietnam since May 3, 1978. Issued by the State Bank of Vietnam, it is represented by the symbol "₫". Formerly, it was subdivided into 10 hào, which were further subdivided into 10 xu, neither of which are now used. Since 2012 the use of coins has decreased greatly, and since 2014 coins are generally not accepted in retail, but will still be accepted in some, but not all, banks.

Cuban peso one of two official currencies in use in Cuba, along with the convertible peso

The peso is one of two official currencies in use in Cuba, the other being the convertible peso. There is currently 25 CUP per CUC.

Banknotes that are no longer in issue in Canada, and are being removed from circulation, are said to be withdrawn from circulation.

Kenyan shilling currency

The shilling is the currency of Kenya. It is divided into 100 cents.

Hungarian forint paper money is part of the physical form of the current Hungarian currency, the Hungarian forint. The forint paper money consists exclusively of banknotes. During its history, denominations ranging from 10 to 20,000 forint were put into circulation in correspondence with the inflation which raised needs for higher denominations. Recently, commemorative banknotes were issued as well.

Hungarian pengő paper money was part of the physical form of Hungary's historical currency, the Hungarian pengő. Paper money usually meant banknotes, which were issued by the Hungarian National Bank. Later – during and after World War II – other types of paper money appeared, including emergency money, bonds and savings certificates.

Bank of England note issues Notes issued by the Central Bank of the United Kingdom

The Bank of England, which is now the central bank of the United Kingdom, has issued banknotes since 1694. In 1921 The Bank of England gained a legal monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, a process that started with the Bank Charter Act of 1844 when the ability of other banks to issue notes was restricted.

Danmarks Nationalbank issues banknotes of the Danish Krone (kr.) and has replaced the 1997 banknote series as of 24 May 2011.

1954 Series (banknotes) third series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada

The 1954 Series was the third series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada. The banknotes were designed in 1952 following the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne after the death of her father George VI. The banknote designs differed significantly from the preceding 1937 Series banknotes, though the denomination colours and bilingual printing were retained.

Scenes of Canada was the fourth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada. It was first circulated in 1970 to succeed the 1954 Series, and was replaced by the Birds of Canada series beginning in 1986.

Canadian Journey Series sixth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar

The Canadian Journey series is the sixth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar designed and circulated by the Bank of Canada. It succeeded the Birds of Canada banknote series. The first of the banknotes issued into circulation was the $10 banknote on 17 January 2001, and the last to be issued was the $50 banknote on 17 November 2004. The series was succeeded by the Frontier Series, banknotes of which were first issued into circulation from 2011 to 2013.

Birds of Canada (banknotes)

Birds of Canada are banknotes of the Canadian dollar first circulated by the Bank of Canada in 1986 to replace the Scenes of Canada series. Each note features a bird indigenous to Canada in its design. The banknotes weigh 1 gram with dimensions of 152.40 by 69.85 millimetres. It was succeeded by the Canadian Journey Series introduced in 2001.

Philippine one hundred peso note

The Philippine one hundred-peso note (₱100) is a denomination of Philippine currency. Philippine president Manuel A. Roxas is currently featured on the front side of the bill, while the Mayon Volcano and the whale shark are featured on the reverse side.

Frontier Series seventh series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar released by the Bank of Canada

The Frontier Series is the seventh series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar released by the Bank of Canada. The polymer banknotes were designed to increase durability and to incorporate more security features over the preceding Canadian Journey Series. The notes feature images that focus on historic Canadian achievements and innovation. It is the first banknote series issued by the Bank of Canada printed on a material other than paper.

Four banknotes of the Canadian dollar have been commemorative issues. The first was issued in 1935 to the silver jubilee of the accession of George V to the throne of the United Kingdom, the only $25 banknote ever issued by the Bank of Canada. The second commemorative banknote was the Centennial $1 banknote issued in January 1967 to commemorate the Canadian Centennial. The third was issued in September 2015 to commemorate Elizabeth II becoming the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and Canada. In 2017, the Bank of Canada released a commemorative $10 banknote for Canada's sesquicentennial, which was available by Canada Day.

References