This new recent information is being shared on this forum to inform collectors, buyers, sellers in a fair manner. A more detailed article will be published in a future CPMS Journal.
The Bank of Canada performed a series of durability tests using $5 Bird Series bank notes. A government publication, Bank of Canada Review Autumn 2007 describes $5 bank note circulation testing with a new material trademarked “Luminus” by Domtar, a Canadian security paper manufacturer. Circulation trials were conducted from July 1995 to 1998. In 2012, the bank confirmed that $5 Bird Series test notes used in circulation trials had prefix and serial numbers GOG 0100000-0199999. Circulation tests proved successful; however in 1999 the paper manufacturer withdrew its offer to supply Luminus for future bank notes.
Some bank note collectors have heard that GOG test notes were called “GoGo notes”. The Bank of Canada commented that this was a combination of the GOG prefix and test serial numbers starting with a zero. A test note with GOG 0xxxxxx was GOG 0 or “GoGo”. This clear serial number distinction would make sense from a practical point of view for people involved in culling notes from circulation throughout the two year trial. It would also support a view that regular non-test GOG notes had serial numbers starting with 1 through 9.
The Bank of Canada has previously released little information about GOG tests. Other information has circulated in the bank note collecting public, however, has not been officially confirmed.
In 2013, CPMF reported the first $5 Bird test note discovered GOG 0168401 (sold by G. Bell Auctions in 2013). The man who found it shared the note’s provenance on CPMF. His mother, who lived in Saint John, always cashed her paycheque at her local RBC branch and they sometimes gave her new bank notes. She put new notes away from time to time and the GOG note was one amongst many other regular notes. After she died, her son discovered her collection included this GOG test note.
Saint John and Ottawa are known as favourite locations for Bank of Canada circulation trials. The discovery of an uncirculated GOG test note handed out by a bank in Saint John appears to confirm that circulation trials were being conducted in that city in 1995.
In July 2022, I visited the Bank of Canada Museum in Ottawa and noticed one particular $5 Bird Series bank note on display had a GOG prefix. I took a photo because it was prominently displayed apart from a group of all denominations of the Bird series.
I only recently decided to check the serial number on that GOG note at the museum. It was GOG 0500152. Since it was outside the disclosed test range and the NCC does not have any GOG test note images available online for public viewing; I decided to ask the Bank of Canada. (Was this GOG a repeat of the G/R test note seen on display at the museum for years before the general collecting public noticed?)
A knowledgeable source at the Bank of Canada’s Currency Museum released more details including serial number ranges of $5 Bird Series tests for various paper materials and control notes.
The Bank of Canada’s information is summarized below:
Test and Control Notes Serial Number Range Number of Notes Printed
Luminous substrate paper tests #1,2,3 GOG 0100000 – 0219999 120,000
Notes containing 100% cotton GOG 0280000 – 0399999 120,000
Control notes containing 75% cotton GOG 0400000 – 0519999 120,000
Based on the above, the revised number of GOG test notes printed has increased to 360,000. As we have done with other test notes; control notes are an integral part of any test to provide a direct comparison of local conditions at the time test notes are circulating. They were put into circulation and recovered over the same period of time.
A very preliminary register of GOG test notes is shown below:
$5 1986 BIRD SERIES GOG TEST NOTE REGISTER
1986 $5 GOG 0168401 Bonin - Thiessen BCS Unc 60 G. Bell Auction (May 2013)
1986 $5 GOG 0191731 Bonin - Thiessen Legacy VF 20 G. Bell Auction (April 2022)
1986 $5 GOG 0206790 Bonin - Thiessen Unc National Currency Collection
1986 $5 GOG 0500152 Bonin - Thiessen Unc National Currency Collection
This register is expected to increase with the expanded serial number range.
Please share any other GOG test notes with me. Confirmed notes will be added to the register.
JBN
