Coins1937 Canadian Banknotes, 1937 → 1937 $100 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada Note

1937 $100 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada Note

Key dateBank of Canada
Affiliate links. For key dates, buy certified.

Why this coin matters

John Osborne signed Bank of Canada notes only until 1938, when Donald Gordon replaced him as deputy governor, and that short window is where the 1937 series hides its rarities. The hundred shows it best: 70,000 Osborne notes against 4,170,000 Gordons and 900,000 Coynes. Same Macdonald portrait, same sepia note, same everything - except the pen, and a sixty-fold difference in the count.

This is the file's cleanest lesson that on the 1937 series the signature, not the denomination, is where scarcity lives. A collector can own the bilingual hundred for the price of a nice dinner in Gordon form; the Osborne is a different market entirely.

From the editorial file

Read the left signature before anything else on a 1937 note. Every denomination has a cheap form and at least one expensive one, and the difference is two cursive words that plenty of listings never photograph properly.

Before you buy: the checklist

  • The signature is the variety. Osborne, Gordon or Coyne - always paired with Towers. Demand a clear photograph of the left signature.
  • Certified above F. The premium justifies the holder, and the holder names the signature.

Mintage: the 1937 bank of canada note, issue by issue

IssueMintMintage
1937 $1 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa249,568,000
1937 $1 (Gordon-Towers, Narrow Panel) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa10,000,000
1937 $1 (Gordon-Towers, Wide Panel) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa460,000,000
1937 $1 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa50,000,000
1937 $10 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa90,000,000
1937 $10 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa180,000,000
1937 $10 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa6,400,000
1937 $100 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa900,000
1937 $100 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa4,170,000
1937 $100 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa70,000
1937 $1000 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa15,000
1937 $2 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa80,000,000
1937 $2 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa170,000,000
1937 $2 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa20,000,000
1937 $20 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa20,000,000
1937 $20 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa40,000,000
1937 $20 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa1,622,000
1937 $5 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa70,000,000
1937 $5 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa160,000,000
1937 $5 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa8,824,500
1937 $50 (Coyne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa1,100,000
1937 $50 (Gordon-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa4,200,000
1937 $50 (Osborne-Towers) Bank of Canada NoteOttawa100,000

The 1937 in its series

Sources

Mintage figures: United States Mint (Annual Report of the Director of the Mint), Royal Canadian Mint records, and — for the 1935 banknote issue — Bank of Canada printage records as published in the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.

The mintage is the only number that never changes. This is where it lives.