Canadian Bank Notes, 8th Edition

It has been two and a half years since the last update. Echoes of the last recession are found in modest reductions in prices for some of the more common small size chartered notes, as demand struggles to match the available supply. Valuations have remained static for many readily available large size notes. Once again, scarce and rare notes are the star performers. Recent auction realizations serve as benchmarks for prices that were unthinkable only a few years ago, for a wide range of rare notes Summersides and Weyburns being but two examples. As usual, the book has been completely updated with improved images where possible, and new listings have been added as previously unrecorded notes appear on the market or in collections. There is more census information provided than ever before in the catalogue, and it has all been brought up to date. Efforts continue to identify notes which do not survive, or are all impounded in institutional collections, and to price others only in grades which are available to the collecting public. It is a pleasure to record that a Northern Crown Bank $50 note is now known to exist a cancelled but high grade example was found last year among other fabulous treasures disinterred from the cornerstone of the Saskatchewan Legislature. Recently discovered notes not previously known in private hands include notes issued by the Imperial Bank of Canada, Niagara District Bank, La Banque Provinciale du Canada, and the Zimmerman Bank. In response to a suggestion received, Bank of Upper Canada (Kingston) notes of the 1820 issue have now been listed with and without the Payable at the Bank of Canada in Montreal overprint, the latter appearing to be the scarcer. An exciting new discovery, reported by Steven Bell, has been given catalogue listing. It is a most unusual kind of error note, a Banque Nationale $10 of 1897 with the acute accent over the R of PRESIDENT instead of the E. So far, only one example has turned up, but there could be others lying undetected in collections or dealer stocks. The listings for the International Bank of Canada have been extensively revised in response to two events, the sale of the definitive Charles D. Moore collection in October 2011 and the release of population information for the $1 notes by Cliff Beattie in his address to the 2013 CPMS meeting in Winnipeg. Several International Bank of Canada notes that were once priced in all grades are now shown as no known issued notes . We have expanded the listings to include all notes known to have been issued by the Niagara District Bank, as recorded in ancient bank documents. This was prompted by recent sales of several notes previously thought to be extinct, although most of the newly listed notes still seem to have disappeared without a trace. Prominent notices have been scattered throughout the book, one making the vitally important point that Charlton prices are inseparably linked to Charlton grading. The other relates to pricing for back proofs, which we do not list separately. Their market values can be calculated as percentages of the corresponding face proof prices. This book is an indispensable guide to Canadian chartered bank notes and their current market values, but it is also a convenient, encyclopoedic source of information, much of it unavailable from other sources.