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Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

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NOTE ISSUES 549notes which would be different from anything produced inAmerica up to that time. It was felt that portraits, sketchesof buildings and similar devices were less appropriate asdistinguishing features of bank-notes than symbolic designswhich would be suitable for all time to <strong>com</strong>e. It has alsobeen the custom on this continent to construct bank-notespiece by piece out of various standard designs, such as vignettes,sections of lathe-work, and so on. The resulting note canseldom be a consistent artistic whole, for it is constructed outof several distinct efforts, not always well connected. TheCanadian Bank of Commerce desired that the whole design ofeach of the new notes should be the result of a single artisticToeffort, and that these designs should be its own property.secure an artist capable of creating such designs was a difficultmatter, and as the number of skilled engravers <strong>com</strong>petent toengrave them isalso very limited and the work on each noterequires about a year's time, several years elapsedbefore thefirst notes were ready. The $20 note was issued during1919 and it is hoped that the other denominations, $50 and$100, will soon follow.The main feature of the face design of the $5 note1 is acentral group consisting of Mercury holdingthe caduceus inhis right hand, supported on the left by a goddess representingArchitecture and on the right by another goddess representingInvention, who holds in her hands the model of a flying machine.The note is surrounded by a frame of immortelles, fruits andvines, in the four corners of which appear the numeralsrepresenting the denomination. 2 The name of the bank isinserted in the top part of the frame, and the wording of the noteoccupies the blank space to the left of the central group.each side of this group the greater part of the white space isoccupied by a protective multicolour tint, known as a Majortint, after the name of the inventor; this consists principally1See plate 77, facing page 534.This feature is <strong>com</strong>mon to all the notes of this issue except the fifty, in whichthe numerals are inserted only in the two upper <strong>com</strong>ers. Variety is gained by usingboth Roman and Arabic numerals and by changing the order in which these are used.On

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