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Figure 7. Portrait of Jose Marti, engraved for the Columbian Bank Note
Company, Chicago. Engraver unknown.
While working on this article I happened to be looking at
some Columbian Bank Note portraits, and I noticed one of Jose
Marti (Figure 7). I had forgotten this portrait, and realized that
it might have been prepared for the same competition in 1949,
though it also could have been done for a bond. Unfortunately
there are no engraving records for Columbian Bank Note, and the
engraver of the portrait is therefore unknown.
It was a substantial investment for a bank note company to
engrave portraits and vignettes before an order was received.
Occasionally it was a requirement of the tender, as in this case.
The downside, of course, is what happened to Security Banknote,
and presumably the firms other than American Bank Note who
competed for the contract—expensive engraving that was never
used, not only of the portrait, but also the master dies and tints
for the entire face and back of the 1 peso note. Of course, there
would be the chance of future tenders, but in the case of Cuba,
the work of the firms other than American Bank Note ended up
solely as “what might have been.” American Bank Note kept the
business until Castro’s revolution a decade later.
Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of a “what might have
been” engraving is a portrait that was twice passed over, once for an
ordinary reason and the second time for an extraordinary reason. This
is the second Robert Savage engraving of Edward the Prince of Wales.
When the 1935 series of Canadian notes (the first notes of
the Bank of Canada and the first Canadian small-size notes)
were planned, there was a Canadian Bank Note/American Bank
Note model for a $5 note bearing the portrait of the Prince of
Wales. The portrait (Figure 8) shows the prince in a uniform
of the Welsh Guards, with a hat, and was previously used on
the $2 Dominion of Canada note of 1923. (In 1920 Edwin
Gunn engraved another, different portrait of the Prince in the
Figure 8. Portrait of HRH Prince of Wales, Canada Special A-20 Canadian
Bank Note Company Ottawa, engraved by Robert Savage in 1923. Used
on the $2 Dominion of Canada notes of 1923. (slightly reduced)
Figure 9. Photograph of HRH Prince of Wales as Colonel-in-Chief of the
Seaforth Highlanders. Image from Gordon Beckles’ Coronation Souvenir
Book, 1937.
IBNS Journal 48.2 47