Canada's Landscape Series of Banknotes from 1954

In the early 1950s, the Bank of Canada contracted with noted Canadian artist Charles Comfort to design its next set of bank notes. For the first time, a single lead designer shaped the entire series. Its modern simplicity was an enormous departure from the long-outdated offerings of the printing companies. Officials at the Bank wanted the notes to feature images of Canadian landscapes that showed little or no evidence of human activity. They chose the final eight images from over 3,000 photographs drawn from the collections of railways, archives and news agencies. What resulted was an extended portrait of Canada with some notes highlighting its unspoiled, wild beauty. The vision may have been idealized, but it served as the natural starting point for an evolving expression of official identity that would play out on all future bank notes. Design highlights included moving the portrait to the right, simplifying the line work and integrating Canada’s coat of arms into the background pattern. No Canadian prime ministers appeared on these notes; every note carried the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Most of the front and back side of each note were intaglio printed, creating raised ink and the paper had a scattering of green dots called planchettes. The first use of lithography in Bank of Canada notes provided a third colour for each note, seen in the tiny print on the face sides. A gorgeous landscape engraving filled the back of each note while our brand-new sovereign, Elizabeth II, was the star feature on the front of all eight denominations. Celebrated Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh took an official portrait of Elizabeth. She was then beautifully reproduced by master engraver George Gundersen of the British American Bank Note Company. The new bank notes were elegant and very Canadian. Common Obverse: English texts on the left and French texts on the right. A black and white frame decorated with abstract forms in which the values are presented in both English and French. On the right is a portrait of Elizabeth II, the new Queen of England and the Commonwealth. The background is the Coat of arms of Canada. The reverse features images from every major region of Canada: $1: Cloud-laden prairie near Fleming, Saskatchewan with the "Trans-Canada" road $2: Rural landscape of the Richmond region with the hills of Quebec City, known as "Les Montérégiennes", beyond the Saint-François River $5: The "Otter Falls" on the Aishihik River at Mile 996 of the Alaska Highway in the Yukon $10: Mt. Burgess in Yoho National Park in Canadian Rocky Mountains in the background and Emerald Lake in foreground $20: Laurentian Mountains in winter $50: Crescent Beach at Lockeport, Nova Scotia $100: Okanagan Lake in south central British Columbia $1000: "Anse-Saint-Jean" on the Saguenay River, located in the Quebec region (Sources: Bank of Canada Museum, https://www.bankofcanadamuseum.ca/com... https://www.bankofcanadamuseum.ca/201... Wikipedia, Charles Comfort, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...)