Paper Money

Canadian $4 note with wrong vignette tops auction

A Dominion of Canada $4 note dated July 2, 1900, and graded Gem Uncirculated 66 Premium Paper Quality by PCGS Currency sold for $51,750 in Canadian funds ($38,710 U.S.), making it the top seller among several hundred pieces of Canadian paper money at the TOREX coin show in Toronto on Feb. 24. The catalog estimate was $60,000 to $80,000 Canadian in the auction conducted by Canadian Numismatic Co.

The note was printed by the American Bank Note Co. in Ottawa and is the finest known of the 420,000 originally printed. The vignette in the center of the note’s face is a wrongly selected version that was corrected on the next issue in 1902. It shows a view of the locks of the Sault Ste. Marie canal linking Lakes Huron and Superior. The error is that it shows the view from the Michigan side instead of from the Ontario side. The portraits flanking it are of the Countess and the fourth Earl of Minto, who was governor general of Canada from 1898 to 1904.

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The auction firm says the previous high price for this note was over $40,000 Canadian for a Gem Uncirculated 65 example graded by the Canadian Coin Certification Service.


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