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A New Ten on the Block

By: Graham Iddon


June 9, 2017
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The Canada 150 bank note is issued!

The public reveal of our new Canada 150 bank note design (we call it the C150), with its various ceremonies and crowd of dignitaries, was a pretty big deal (see the blog). The media event surrounding the same note’s release into circulation, (or “issue” as we like to call it) was, by contrast, a much quieter affair. Such things usually are. (No astronauts were involved—see the issue of the Polymer $5)

The new C150 $10 bill. As richly detailed a note as you’d hope to find.

In a modern twist, Governor Stephen S. Poloz took a “selfie” while holding a C150 note before meeting up with the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor for the main photo‑op. Petitpas Taylor is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and was representing the Honourable Bill Morneau at the event.

It was a two-part photo-op: the Governor and Petitpas Taylor posed across the street from the Bank holding notes and then walked the two blocks to a gift shop on Sparks Street to place those notes into circulation. The only slight drama arose from the weather. Not only did the wind play havoc with our subjects’ hair, but clouds kept passing over the sun, making the photographers sweat a bit as they coped with the constantly changing light. But Governor Poloz and Petitpas Taylor nevertheless braved the gusts, posing cheerfully with their new C150 bank notes.

There then followed the curious spectacle of a gaggle of media hurriedly lugging all their gear down Sparks Street and cramming themselves around the cash desk of a nearby gift shop. Mr. Poloz strolled in and bought some maple candy and Ms. Petitpas Taylor chose some soap. Both paid with crispy, new C150 notes, of course. When the dignitaries left, cameras crowded around the sales desk, while their owners made the clerk (who was a good sport about it) repeatedly take the bill out of the register and put it back again.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen S. Poloz selfies with the new note from the Bank’s atrium.

We had a satisfying turn out of both print and broadcast media.

The official C150 bank note issue image shows the 7 story graphic on the side of the Bank’s head office complex.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor buys an item in a gift shop and puts a C150 bank note into circulation.

After the Governor and the Parliamentary Secretary have left: the gift shop clerk’s star turn.

In my last blog about this note, I spoke about the portraits. Now, as promised, I’ll chat about the more than a dozen other visual elements on the back and front. From the public consultations that informed the design, it was clear that Canadians’ identification with the landscape remains very strong. Back in 1954, the Bank’s Canadian Landscape series of notes promoted Canadian identity through its regional landscapes, featuring big vignettes that beautifully captured a broad snapshot of our vast country. Mind you, the designers had eight notes to work with.

The 1954 Canadian Landscape series were our first bank notes to project a clear sense of Canadian nationalism.

The C150 design team didn’t have the luxury of such a vast canvas and was challenged to represent Canada’s wildly diverse regions on the back of just one note. The resulting note’s five gorgeous landscapes manage to elegantly showcase almost all geological regions of Canada. We’re just that much more efficient these days.

The Lions, or the Twin Sisters, above Capilano Lake are visible from most parts of Vancouver.

bank note image: wheat

Representing the Prairies, this wheat field is outside of Regina, Saskatchewan.

Part of the vast Canadian Shield, this is the Kipawa River in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue area of Quebec.

These fearsome rocks guard the shores of Cape Bonavista, in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Above all is the North, represented by the aurora borealis as seen from Wood Buffalo National Park on the Alberta/Northwest Territories border.

Apparently not satisfied with the four portraits on the front and five landscapes on the back of the bill, the C150 team included another ten visual elements to further represent Canada’s culture, history and land—and further frustrate counterfeiters, of course. These elements are applied via a number of security printing methods employed by the Canadian Bank Note Company. Vignettes such as the arrow sash patterns at the top and bottom or the Hall of Honour are lithographic prints, while the features such as those in and around the large transparent window are printed using metallic, colour-shifting inks. These inks change colour when you tilt the bill and make the maple leaves at the bottom of the window appear to be three dimensional. Good old-fashioned intaglio printing originating from steel engravings was used for the portraits and landscapes, recognizable by lightly brushing your fingertips across their raised surfaces.

The pattern along the top and bottom of the bill is that of the Assomption Sash; as traditionally worn by Métis and Habitants.

bank note image: gothic window

An arch from the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower is printed in metallic ink. The Hall of Honour in the Centre Block is in the background.

Kenojuak Ashevak’s Owl’s Bouquet and our coat of arms are rendered as colour-shifting holographic images in the large clear window.

In fact, so rich in detail is this note that you really ought to see it up close on the Bank of Canada’s website. There you’ll find a beautiful, fun and fascinating webpage with an interactive note you can flip over and inspect. You will also find background information on all the imagery along with a couple of really slick videos.

Better still, pick up a C150 note for yourself at your friendly, neighbourhood financial institution. If, like some of us, you are planning to keep the note, get two so you can spend one. It is money, after all, and it won’t commemorate anything while stored in your sock drawer.

We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
Content type(s): Blog posts

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The Museum Blog

August 30, 2016

Gold Rush! and Mining the Miners

By: Graham Iddon


Mining the Miners is our third temporary exhibition at the CMH (we reopen in 2017) and it is indeed about the Klondike gold rush. It’s always nice to be able to dovetail our exhibits with those of our host.
Content type(s): Blog posts
August 5, 2016

New Acquisitions

By: David Bergeron


When I was a kid, I liked going to Canadian Tire with my dad because he gave me the Canadian Tire money that he would receive along with his change.
Content type(s): Blog posts
June 27, 2016

Repairing Steel Dies

Before they were to be placed in collection storage, these broken dies were evaluated for further conservation treatment. Ultimately, the decision was made to repair the breaks.
Content type(s): Blog posts
June 15, 2016

New Acquisitions

By: Paul S. Berry


In May 2013, staff of the Bank of Canada Museum visited BABN and were able to select for the National Currency Collection more than 650 steel dies (small, engraved metal or “intaglio” plates) and other production tools formerly used by the company to prepare the intaglio printing plates.
Content type(s): Blog posts
May 24, 2016

A bank NOTE-able Woman II

By: Graham Iddon


On 15 April, the public consultation to select an iconic Canadian woman to appear on a bank note closed. Over 26,000 nominations were received following the Bank of Canada’s open call—a great success.
Content type(s): Blog posts
May 11, 2016

New Acquisitions

By: Paul S. Berry


Canadians, on occasion, have used money as a signboard for political protest, a platform for social commentary and even as a handy notepad on which to record fleeting thoughts before they are lost.
Content type(s): Blog posts
April 11, 2016

A bankNOTEable Woman

By: Graham Iddon


Representing significant women on national currency is gaining momentum all over the world. At least 12 countries currently feature historically notable women on their money…
Content type(s): Blog posts
March 30, 2016

Museum Reconstruction - Part 4

By: Graham Iddon


It seems a pretty strange building but now it has a solid roof, glass walls and doors. Doors? Ah, there’s your clue. It’s no skateboard park—it’s the entrance portico for the Bank of Canada Museum.
Content type(s): Blog posts
March 15, 2016

Decoding E-Money II

By: Graham Iddon


This has been an extremely challenging exhibition to develop. We are taking, for us, the unprecedented step of interpreting something that is not only current but continually changing.
Content type(s): Blog posts
February 18, 2016

New Acquisitions

By: David Bergeron


In late April of 2015, the National Currency Collection finally succeeded in acquiring a Spanish gold cob—famous in legends and tales of pirates and their buried treasures!
Content type(s): Blog posts
December 17, 2015

What’s in Your Stocking?

By: Graham Iddon


Every prop in the holiday drama generally has some sort of symbolic meaning—evergreen trees: life in the dead of winter, holly: Christ’s crown of thorns, the dreidel: Jewish resistance to oppression. Money, on the other hand, only seems to symbolize itself.
Content type(s): Blog posts
November 10, 2015

Money from Space

Do you notice anything peculiar about this bank note? It’s blue; it’s denominated as 5-dollar; it has handsome portraits of Sir Wilfred Laurier on it…hold on a minute!
Content type(s): Blog posts
October 29, 2015

Royal Canadian Numismatic Association

By: Raewyn Passmore


Nova Scotia has long been a centre of trade that connected Europe, New England and the West Indies. Following the American Revolution, Halifax became the primary British port in North America and a hub of financial activity.
Content type(s): Blog posts
September 28, 2015

Merchant scrip from Labrador

By: David Bergeron


Before banks were established in remote regions of Canada, paying employees involved shipping currency long distances into wild and often lawless locations. The alternative to this risky enterprise was for the company to issue its own money. Called scrip…
Content type(s): Blog posts
September 15, 2015

The 2015 Commemorative $20 Bank Note Revealed

By: Graham Iddon


It’s a historic day for us as well. It isn’t every day that the Bank of Canada introduces a new commemorative note.
Content type(s): Blog posts
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