Varnish on Journey Notes Revisited - AOG, BTF, BTG

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

As someone interested in design of bank notes I have been interested in the issue of varnish on the bank notes.

Previous Posts
There has been various posts from the 2006 to 2007 time frames dealing with varnish mostly on the upgraded $5 notes with security.

http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/forum/index.php?topic=3937.msg26759#msg26759

In one of the topics there was also some discussion about $10 BTG changeover and one of the members speculating that it would have varnish:

http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/forum/index.php?topic=4972.msg28074#msg28074

I am hoping that someday I might get around to documenting Canadian Bank Note Design beyond what is captured in the current publications. While this may not be significant for collectors I do believe it is significant for numismatics.

Full Varnish and Partial Varnish - There is nothing like no varnish
In this regard I have made following observations:

All notes of journey series have varnish. Some have partial varnish and some have full varnish. If there has been notes with no varnish then they are either errors or possible test notes.

The presecurity $5 and $10 journey had partial varnish which incorporated a feature that impacted the visual elements of the note.

The $20, $50, $100 journey all have partial varnish.

The upgraded $5, and $10 journey notes with security either have ranges with either partial varnish or full varnish.

The $5 upgraded notes have been well documented in this forum. The transition point for the BABN prefix was AOG. Thereafter all the prefixes have full varnish. For the CBN prefixes all of them have partial varnish.

$10 Journey Series with Full and Partial Varnish
I could not find discussion on the $10 upgraded notes. I get a feeling that since this was not being considered as a variety from the $5 experience, most people did not pay much attention to it as it would not mean much to a collector (I am guessing). However I have found that starting with BTG and going as far as 2008 BFH the $10 upgraded journey notes have full varnish. From 2009 BFH changeover to BFW the notes have partial varnish. The notes from BEU to 2005 BTF changeover have partial varnish. I have not been able to check any2007  BTF notes for the varnish condition however I am guessing that ALL BTF (2005 and 2007) are partial varnish.

I have come to this conclusion about BTF because just like prefix AOG the prefix BTG has a range with partial varnish and a range with full varnish. I have noticed that in the BTG the partial varnish at least goes as far as 2.0.

Maybe you can help
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has observations regarding the varnish in light of this post. In particular if you have 2007 BTF and BTG I would appreciate if you can check if the have full varnish and provide the serial number. I am trying to establish the point of change in BTG. In the case of 2007 BTF and BTG the partial varnish in my thinking may have been an oversight.

Also I have read somewhere that the partial varnish on all journey notes was applied in an area on the back of the note stretching from the top left to the top middle mostly to provide durability for the tactile feature. Unfortunately I cannot find this information. If you have any thoughts on it please share that.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has observations regarding the varnish in light of this post. In particular if you have 2007 BTF and BTG I would appreciate if you can check if the have full varnish and provide the serial number.

Not entirely clear what I am supposed to look for when it comes to varnished Journey notes. 

If it's a glossy look: I have a 2007 BTF 9796115 which is glossy (varnished?) on the entire front and only glossy on the left top purple portion (with 10 marker) plus a small 2 mm border which traverses into the pinkish/orange background beyond doves on the back.  The rest of the back is dull so I'm assuming it is unvarnished. Would that qualify as partially varnished? I have no BTG notes.

Not entirely clear what I am supposed to look for when it comes to varnished Journey notes. 

If it's a glossy look: I have a 2007 BTF 9796115 which is glossy (varnished?) on the entire front and only glossy on the left top purple portion (with 10 marker) plus a small 2 mm border which traverses into the pinkish/orange background beyond doves on the back.  The rest of the back is dull so I'm assuming it is unvarnished. Would that qualify as partially varnished? I have no BTG notes.

Hello WTW thank you for sharing - you have shared some interesting and useful observations.

The Note you describe is partially varnished
Firstly based on your description the note you are describing would be partially varnished on the back.

You are describing the partial varnish on the back of the notes correctly - shiny on the left top at the marker and 2mm border at bottom and rest is dull -

In the post for the non-security $5 and $10 there is an image showing the top portion corresponding to the varnished area

http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/forum/index.php?topic=15096.msg65865#msg65865

Glossy Portion on Face in this note is not Protective Varnish
Secondly the glossy portion you are describing on the entire front which is the correct observation is not because of the vanish that is applied as the last part of the printing process (which is often called protective varnish and protects all inked areas).

In any note that has full varnish on face and back and that was applied as the last part of the printing process you will notice that the intaglio is also shiny. There is another identifiable distinguishing characteristics in note where full varnish is applied on the face. This will require showing an image which I will do in a later post. Needless to say the glossy appearance that you see on the face of the BTF 9796115 is mostly because of the finishing of the paper that was used and is evident in all upgraded journey series notes.

The one sample of 2007 BTF that is described is partial varnish even though most of the other 2007 BT- and BF- are full varnish

So the changeover of varnish appears to be somewhere in BTG

Thank you -