1937 Canadian banknote series

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.{{sfn|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1936|p=5}} He favoured printing dual-language banknotes (distinct English and French banknotes) as had been done for the 1935 Series.{{sfn|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1936|p=5}} 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.{{sfn|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1936|p=5}}

The death of George V on 20 January 1936 was another factor for the Bank of Canada to introduce a new series of banknotes.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=37}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=37}} These used portraits of King George VI, who ascended the throne on 11 December 1936.{{sfn|Bank of Canada}}

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.{{sfn|Currency Museum}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=40}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=43}} All banknotes in the series measure {{convert|152.4|by|73.025|mm|in|3}}.

Each denomination had a distinct colour, and this set of denomination colours would be used for all subsequent banknote series.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} 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".{{sfn|The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle|1935|p=2}} 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,{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=43}} the $20 banknote to olive green, the $50 banknote to orange,{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=45}} and the $100 banknote to the same tint of sepia used for the 1935 Series $500 banknote.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=46}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=26}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=34}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=37}} It had been used on the $50 banknote of the 1935 Series.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} 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.{{sfn|Powell|loc=Establishment of a central bank|p=30}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=46}}

The allegorical figure on the $1 banknote was the same as that on the 1935 Series $1 banknote, depicting an agricultural theme.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=43}} It was based on a painting by Alonzo Foringer of the American Bank Note Company (ABN).{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=31}} 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).{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=43}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=44}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=45}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=28}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=45}}{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=46}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=42}} 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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=42}}

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.{{Sfn|Cuhaj|2010|p=189|ps= The printing companies are identified as CBNC (Canadian Bank Note Company) and BABNC (British American Bank Note Company) in the source document.}}

Ultimately, the "production of bilingual notes was widely endorsed by parliamentarians and by the public".{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=37}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=38}} The $2 banknotes were rarely used in the prairie provinces of Canada as that denomination had "never been popular" there{{sfn|Swanson|1949|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Toronto Star|1990|p=A26}} This denomination would be shunned by many in the prairie provinces until the 1990s, when $2 banknotes of the Birds of Canada series became increasingly accepted.{{sfn|Toronto Star|1990|p=A26}}

By 1940, {{currency|495,946,232|CAD}} worth of banknotes were in circulation, of which {{currency|379 million|CAD}} was held by the public and the remainder by chartered banks.{{sfn|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1942|p=17}} This reflected an increase of {{currency|95 million|CAD}} in 1940 and {{currency|109 million|CAD}} in 1941.{{sfn|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1942|p=17}} 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.{{sfn|Swanson|1949|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Swanson|1949|p=1}} 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".{{sfn|Swanson|1949|p=1}}

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.{{sfn|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006|p=47}}

{{reflist|2}}

{{Portal|Canada|Money|Numismatics}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|title=The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money|edition=10th|editor-last=Cross|editor-first=W.K.|publisher=The Charlton Press|location=Toronto|year=1997|isbn=0889681902|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/charltonstandard0000unse_y6i0}}
• {{cite book|title=Standard Catalog Of World Paper Money General Issues 1368-1960|editor-last=Cuhaj|editor-first=George S.|publisher=Krause Publications|year=2010|isbn=9781440216350|issn=1538-2001}}
• {{cite book|title=A History of the Canadian dollar|last=Powell|first=James|publisher=Bank of Canada|isbn=0662281233}}
• {{cite news|title=Two-dollar notes bust out all over|last=Swanson|first=Frank|volume=106|issue=188|newspaper=The Ottawa Evening Citizen|date=5 February 1949}}
• {{cite book|url=http://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/promo_art.pdf|title=The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|publisher=Bank of Canada|date=6 December 2006|access-date=13 March 2014|isbn=0660632462|ref={{harvid|The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|2006}} }}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/eppp-archive/100/201/301/bank_can_review/2006/spring/cover/en/banknotes/general/character/1937.html|title=1937 Series|work=Bank Note Series, 1935 to present|publisher=Bank of Canada, archived at Collections Canada|access-date=12 March 2014|ref={{harvid|Bank of Canada}} }}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.currencymuseum.ca/national-currency-collection/past-series-bank-canada-notes/1937-series-the-first-bilingual-series/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001225744/http://www.currencymuseum.ca/national-currency-collection/past-series-bank-canada-notes/1937-series-the-first-bilingual-series/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 1, 2013|title=1937 Series, the first bilingual series|publisher=Currency Museum, Bank of Canada|ref={{harvid|Currency Museum}}}}
• {{cite news|title=Bilingual bank notes the latest in Canada|newspaper=Milwaukee Journal|date=19 July 1937|ref={{harvid|Milwaukee Journal|1937}} }}
• {{cite news|title=Tense scene as McGeer makes attack on govt.|volume=93|issue=299|newspaper=The Ottawa Evening Citizen|date=3 June 1936|ref={{harvid|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1936}} }}
• {{cite news|title=Large increase in circulation of bank notes|volume=99|issue=205|newspaper=The Ottawa Evening Citizen|date=14 February 1942|ref={{harvid|The Ottawa Evening Citizen|1942}} }}
• {{cite news|title=The new bank notes|newspaper=The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle|date=18 April 1935|ref={{harvid|The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle|1935}} }}
• {{cite news|title=$2 bill bucks history for Prairie comeback|agency=The Canadian Press|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=4 January 1990|ref={{harvid|Toronto Star|1990}} }}

{{refend}}

{{Canadian Paper Money}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1937 Series (Banknotes)}}

Category:1937 in Canada

Category:Currencies introduced in 1937

Category:Banknotes of Canada