Shrunken Canadian Dollar

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

All,

I have this unusual Canadian dollar that I aquired in about 1972 I believe.  It appears to be shrunken so I took it to the Bank of Canada in Ottawa in 1990 to have them look at it.  The Chief Curator and Head of the Museum at that time (J. Graham Esler) took it to examine and all they would say was that it was worth one dollar.  No explanation as to why it was the size it is.

Over the years I have been trying to find out information about this bill and meet with dead ends.  I found your website and thought I would drop you a note and inquire as to whether or not you may be able to offer some insight into this mystery.

The bill measures just 11 cm wide and 6 cm high.  It is a 1954 issue bearing the signatures of Beattie-Coyne and the serial number is N/L 1333109.  I tried to including a scanned copy of it in comparison to a standard size Canadian bill but the site won't let me so I have uploaded a shot of the front.

{http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7746/canadiandollarbill1.jpg:http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7746/canadiandollarbill1.th.jpg}
{http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3360/canadiandollarbillback.jpg:http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3360/canadiandollarbillback.th.jpg}


If you can offer any insight into this bill it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

DRC

 

Hi DRC,

Thanks for your posting.  Graham is an absolute expert with Canadian bank notes.  If he said it's worth a buck back in 1990, then it was worth a dollar back then. 

As for the shrunken $1 note, the note possibly went through the wash and dry cycles a few times.   And possibly been ironed a number of times before you came into the possession of the note.  The bank note is partially fabric and cotton and could be susceptible to shrinkage.  Could have also gone into the microwave a few times as well.

That's my take.  Could be worth more than a $1, perhaps $10 as more of a novelty item, but definately, it's not a Bank of Canada $1 note error.

I hope this helps.

The Bank of Canada's currency museum has another example of a shrunken $1 note, in fact two.  The first appears as though it was somehow shrunk in both dimensions (vertical and horizontal), it's very washed out, it's missing the serial numbers, and has a big tear in it.  The second one looks like it was simply folded many times accordion style to make it appear narrower than it is.  Neither are worth more than face value and are likely only kept for novelty reasons.  It was in amongst other notes kept for odd and curious reasons.

Thank you for your responses, much appreciated.  I didn't think money could actually shrink (physically the is).