CPM Forum
Canadian Notes => Bank of Canada Notes => Topic started by: Dean on February 16, 2019, 11:01:05 am
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Hi,
I was browsing the prefix maps on the SNDB and I saw that on very few occasions, the Bank of Canada has used I and O as series letters.
There is a general understanding that the Bank does not use these letters because of their resemblance to numbers (as per Charlton) but why did the Bank decide to break its own rule from time to time?
Did the printers merely overlook the exclusion of these letters when filling an order or is there more to it?
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It might make sense. The letter I was used as a series letter after the version with serifs was first released later in 1994. Using it as a series letter on the Journey series with the updated font for the serial numbers was likely short-lived because the letter I on our newer banknotes post-2000 has shorter serifs and could easily be mistaken for a number 1. On the Birds series, the letter I looked more distinguishable as a letter than the number 1, and was therefore used as a series letter. Initially, only BABN prefixes used series letter I, with the exception of GOI (CBN printed) on the $5, but after the turn of the century, CBN prefixes started using series letter I until it was completely dropped in 2006 after EZI was printed). The letter I was discontinued as a series letter after the release of EZI in 2006, but the letters I and O continue being used as denominational letters on the $20 and $5 respectively.
As for the short-lived AWO and EWO, that may have been experimental, but it failed. Maybe some machinery detected AWO and EWO as a two-letter prefix followed by eight digits, implying the letter O looks almost like a number zero. AWO and EWO were released around 2002.
The letter Q was never used on our serial numbers, and never will be. It may be due to looking close to both the letter O and the number zero.
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I kept an AWO $20 that I got one freezing January day in 2004 from an ATM. It's a very nice AU.
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I found an EWO a few weeks ago that's in fairly used condition but I thought the O was cool enough to keep it.
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Apparently PMG thought the "O" was a "0" as well.
{attach:9118}
{attach:9121}
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Here's with the "I". Too bad for the serifs or it could have been an 8-digit solid.
{attach:9124}
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Apparently PMG thought the "O" was a "0" as well.
Hilarious! The #1 of EWO! What a cool note!