What A $1 Bill Looked Like in 1859

During the 1800s — and even into the early 1900s — there wasn't just one national bank in Canada with the power to print money. Instead, there were dozens of "chartered" banks who had permission from the government to roll out their own bills. This is one of those, a $1 bill issued by Toronto's very own Colonial Bank of Canada. It was printed in 1859, during Queen Victoria's reign. That's her over there on the left-hand side of the money, while a woodsman / lumberjack / boy toy from a 19th century romance novel hangs out in the middle.

Finally, in 1935, we established the Bank of Canada and it began to print a centralized national currency with standardized denominations. (Which soon also meant the end of strange numbers showing up on our money, like this $4 bill from 1882.)