Top edge

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Anyone want to weigh in on what's going on with the top edge of this note? It really looks like a trim job.

back side

Don't think so; just crooked paper for the front printing....

The printed area aligns well with the bottom edge but not the top. The top and bottom edges are not parallel; the right edge is longer than the left. Are these kinds of cutting anomalies standard on 1935 notes? They sure aren't on more modern notes.

Both the top and left margins look suspicious.  If the edge is slanted but perfectly straight, then it could be original.  However, both the top and left edges look less than perfectly straight, and this screams "trimmed" at least to me.  You can take a ruler that is perfectly straight and line it up with the edges of the note to see if the edges are straight or not.

Are these kinds of cutting anomalies standard on 1935 notes? They sure aren't on more modern notes.

If you like I can get you non-parallel, non-square edged polymer notes (and these are larger than the specified dimensions).

This is not as uncommon as many people think. I just don't think people are looking for them and the lack of white border easily hides this cutting "anomaly" (although the BoC might suggest that it is still within tolerance)

Wouldn't the disclosure of the dimensions of this note settle some aspect of this debate?

The "old school" way of trimming the edge of a banknote or any other paper document is to use a rigid one-sided razor blade and a metal ruler. However, there is always a risk involved and sometimes the ruler slips and/or the blade slips.  It seems possible, even likely, to me that this is what happened when the upper horizontal edge of the above $5 banknote was being trimmed. Moreover, sometimes when the ruler or blade slips the trimmer has a second "go" in order to tidy things up! In addition, to add to the confusion, some trimmers are left-handed while others are right-handed, and some trimmers trim the note while it's face up and some while it's face down!