Old Money from The Merchants Bank of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown

This bank existed from 1871 until 1906 when it was bought by the Canadian Bank of Commerce.  When the bank opened it had a capital of just 30,000 pounds.  It hit some rough times between 1878 and 1884, but it survived and prospered as other banks in PEI failed.  The Merchants Bank had six branches in 1906 when it was bought.  Fortunately for collectors, the bank issued several different denominations from 1871 until 1900.  Specimens, proofs, and issued bank notes are known to exist today.  The guide below has information about prices and rarity.

Bank Notes from 1871:

The bank first opened in 1871 and it printed $1, $2, $5, $10, and $20 bills that year.  Only a minuscule number of survivors are documented to still exist.  Bank notes can have a date of November 6th 1871 or September 1st 1871 (both are shortened to Nov. and Sept.).  Some of the signors of these bank notes were Wm. McLean, J.M. Davidson, Robt. Longworth, B. Heartz, L.H. Davies, Benjamin Heartz, W.A. Weaks, and L.L. Beer.

Bank Notes from 1877

One, two, and five dollar bills were printed for 1877.  These are still very rare, but they are the most common notes from this bank.  Some have an overprint that reads as “Canada Currency” in red ink.  These are dated as 1st Sept. 1877 or 1st September 1877.  We have a $1 bank note from 1877 pictured at the bottom of the page.

Bank Notes from 1888 – 1892:

Designs from previous years were reused for bank notes dated as 1st August 1889, 6 November 1891, and 1st March 1892.  The 1889 date is only found on $1 bills.  1891 was only used on ten dollar bills.  Fives, tens, and twenties were printed with the 1892 date.  All of these higher denominations are very scarce.  The lower denominations are occasionally available, but they are very expensive.  We have a $20 proof shown below.

Bank Notes from 1900:

Only five dollar bills were printed with the (January) Jan. 2nd 1900 date.  These are very rare bank notes.  We have a proof shown below.  It is well used, but still beautiful.  These were printed by the British American Bank Note Co. Ottawa.  These are very high on our want list.  Please contact us if you have one available for sale.

GOT SOMETHING TO SELL?

We buy all types of Canadian currency. We are especially interested in bank notes from The Merchants Bank of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. You might be surprised at how much money we can offer for some currency. Send us an email with pictures of the front and back of your bank note and we will respond quickly with our offer.

Manning@CanadaCurrency.com

Sample Bank Note Image:

Your piece of currency from The Merchants Bank of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown could look similar to the one seen below.  Anything higher than the two dollar denomination is very rare.  Even $1 and $2 bank notes are few and far between.  Contact us for more value information.