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The Bank of British Columbia .by Ron Greene(Excerpted from "An Alphabet of Banknotes", C.N.J. May, 1993, pp. 169-170. Used with permission).
The Colony of British Columbia really owes its existence to the Fraser River gold rush of 1858. A few years later another strike on Williams Creek led to another substantial, but also short-lived, gold rush. The latter rush prompted English investors to form the Bank of British Columbia in 1862. It received a Royal Charter and had two head offices, one in London , England and a secondary head office in Victoria, Vancouver Island - curiously, neither of these were located in the Colony of British Columbia. But the choice of Victoria as the local main office was logical as it was the only city in the area of any importance at the time. The Bank sent out bank notes which arrived in Victoria about the end of 1862. These notes were issued in $5, $20, $50 and $100 denominations. But the bank feared that the $100 would be used to make remittances to England , effectively reducing a major source of revenue for the bank, so the $100 was withdrawn and replaced by $1.00 notes by June 1863. All of the $100 notes were redeemed. Difficulties arose for the bank and its competitor, the Bank of British North America, when the collectors of customs refused to accept the notes. However, the local managers made arrangements with the government of the Colony of British Columbia that stipulated that the government would accept the notes if the banks held reserves in coin in the colony, which meant opening branches at New Westminster. The banks also had to provide examples of the notes to the collectors of customs. Most of the surviving examples of these notes are from the twelve sets taken from stocks of notes-to-be-issued, which were cancelled and distributed to the collectors. The note illustrated above is one such cancelled example. The notes of the first issue are unusually large, having been printed to the English standard size. Subsequent issues of the Bank of British Columbia were printed to standard Canadian size. The Bank of British Columbia was absorbed by the Canadian Bank of Commerce on January 2, 1901 . Despite a rather large amount of outstanding circulation issued, notes of this bank are exceedingly rare. Undoubtedly a number of the outstanding notes were destroyed in one of the major fires that devastated British Columbia towns or lost in shipping accidents such as the sinking of the S.S. Pacific in November 1875 - only two survived of some 250 souls on board. We should mention that until recently any note of this bank was rare, but a number of specimen and proof notes of the 1894 issue were amongst the notes recently dispersed in the sale of the archives of the American Bank Note Company and it is now possible to obtain an example of this bank's notes. The history of the bank was exceedingly well covered in Volume I of Victor Ross' History of the Canadian Bank of Commerce . There is also a series entitled "Early West Coast Banks" by Ronald Greene commencing of p.77 of the 1968 Canadian Paper Money Journal.
A Brief Catalogue of Bank of British Columbia Issues.
1862-3 Issue. (Printer: Rixon & Arnold. All black on blue underprint). $5. Nov 1862 to January 1863. Miner with pickaxe at lt. ( Ill. above) $20. Nov 1862. Miner pouring ore at lt. $50. Nov 1862. Miner at crank to lt. $100. Jan 1863. Miner with sledgehammer (all redeemed)
1863 - 75 issue. (printer: Wm. Brown & Co.) Denominations: $1. 24 or 30 June 1863 engr; also hand-dated $1, 1863 known overprinted NEW WESTMINSTER $5. March 31, 1864 engr; also hand-dated $10. May 15,1873 engr; also hand-dated $20. May 23,1875 engr; also hand-dated $50. May 23,1875 engr; also hand-dated (all the above were of the same general design, black with blue underprint). 1879 issue. (Printer: Wm. Brown &Co.) Denominations: $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. All of the same general design as below, all dated 1 June 1879 . All with black face and green back. All with the face serial number repeated in very large numbers on the back.
1894 issue. (Printer: American Bank Note Company)
Denominations: $5, 1.1.1894. Britannia with woman. Black on yellow, green underprint $10, 1.1.1894. Similar design, framed vignette. Black on yellow, blue underprint. $20, 1.1.1894. Miners uppr ctr. Black on yellow, brown underprint. $50, 1.1.1894. Supported Royal Arms top ctr. Black on yellow, deep red underprint. All the above have the face serial number repeated on the backs in very large numbers.
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JanuaryThe 'Lion Money' of Sierra Leone
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