Canadian Bank Notes Series: Canadian Bank Note Vignette
Have you ever looked at a bank note purely as an art form, not just as a vehicle for commercial exchange? One look and you'll see bank notes are masterpieces. Take the stunning vignette on this coin for example. It's from the $5 bank note issued by Barclays Bank (Canada) in 1929. So beautiful in fact, it was used on a number of different denominations over the years.
Bank notes are designed to facilitate commerce while providing security measures against counterfeiting, but at their core, they are works of art. Take away the denomination and counters, legal inscriptions, ornamentation, borders and bars; what emerges is a stunning visual narrative of a nation's evolution, its identity and ideals. Painted or drawn by a renowned artist and then adapted for printing by an equally skilled engraver, every bank note vignette is a masterpiece in its own right, backed by an assembly of functional and aesthetic parts that are remarkable in their complexity.
Celebrate the legacy of monetary design and own a hand-crafted art form whose techniques are slowly fading into history.
Specifications
No. 141512
Mintage 8500
Composition 99.99% pure silver
Finish proof
Weight (g) 23.17
Diameter (mm) 36.07
Edge serrated
Certificate serialized
Face value 5 dollars
Artist Susanna Blunt (obverse)