The Back Design of the 1954 $2 Note.

 

The designs as they appeared on Queen Elizabeth's first Bank of Canada note issue of 1954 was in sharp contrast to those of her father. Gone was the center portrait on the face of the notes and the allegories were all replaced with Canadian scenes, for the most part reproduced with fidelity.

 

The most complicated back design was that on the $2 note, showing as it did a view of the village of Upper Melbourne as viewed looking east. Melbourne is located in Quebec 's Eastern Townships, roughly within the triangle formed by the towns and cities of Sherbrooke , Granby and Lennoxville (see arrow below). It is located on the western bank of the St. Francis River which flows northerly here to empty into the St. Lawrence. On the notes, it forms a background and the flow would be from right to left.

 

 

 

There have been major changes, of course, since the scene was sketched circa 1953. One of the main ones has been the replacement of the quiet, two-lane blacktop that ran between Melbourne and the river with a multi-lane major feeder road (see map) connecting the city of Sherbrooke with the Trans-Canada Highway .

 

Actually, quite a bit is known about the details as shown on this note, having been written up in the Toronto Telegram some forty years ago.

 

The most notable feature is the church shown near the left center of the note. This is St. Andrew's Church, a "kirk" of the Church of Scotland built in 1841. The land for the church and manse was donated by Daniel Thomas, locally known as "The Squire". It was built by Hugh Ross with local volunteer labour.

 

 

The small building at extreme lower left is the blacksmith shop of Arthur Quinn who had followed his father in this trade. The road passing the blacksmith shop was called Highway 39 at the time; it was later abandoned for a new one about a mile away. That across the river marked by the line of trees was Highway 22 running from Sherbrooke to Richmond .

 

The building just above the word "Banque" was the home of Albert Doyle; in 1953 he had been there some twenty years or more.

The house just below the church had been occupied since 1920 by the Cogan family. Tom Cogan was a former baker who was clerking in a Richmond grocery store at the time.

Just to the left of the steeple across the river was the farm of John Martin who had recently died at age 99; it was then taken over by Gordon Crock. The farm in the background just to the left center of the tall elm on the right was that of a Mr. Alexander, a breeder of Jersey cattle.

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.