Dominion of Canada War Loan Bonds

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I have attached an image of an unredeemed $50 5-Year "Victory Loan" bond that was issued during World War I in 1917. Fully-issued unredeemed bonds are rarely seen today for obvious reasons although Specimen bonds (see below) appear from time to time. Hoping to receive reports of other surviving bonds, I wrote a detailed article on these interesting items in a 1975 issue of The Canadian Paper Money Journal (Vol. XI, No. 1, pp. 19-21 & 32) and a brief historical survey in the May 17, 1983 issue of Canadian Coin News (see below). I received no reports at all of other surviving examples although a few have come to light in recent years on eBay (Long Live eBay!). It should be noted that similar high-denomination "Victory Loan" bonds were also issued for World War II.

These bonds are visually impressive and they exemplify the great importance of the Dominion of Canada to the British war effort during World War I. I personally regard them to be closely related to paper currency and I hope the day will come when these historical fiscal instruments will be included in the Charlton catalogue in much the same way as the Bank Legals are now included. I would be pleased to correspond with any Forum members who possess any similar bonds.

{http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3433819/2007/9/21/Bond1.jpg}

{http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3433819/2007/9/21/Bond2.jpg}

{http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3433819/2007/9/21/Bond3.jpg}

[edit]Removed caps from title.[/edit]

I remember seeing one of these bonds at a Nuphilex show in Montreal maybe five years ago. I'm pretty sure that this bond had a $500.00 face value. I remember the dealer was asking a few thousand dollars for the bond. I don't remember the name of this dealer. He told me that legally the bond was worth only the maturity value of the 1920's and that it was not renewed automatically like a Canada Savings Bond would have been renewed. I was really impressed by this bond.

There is a story in the Canadian coin news from May16-29 2006 on the front page about a WW1 bond dated 1917 with a $1000 face value and said to be unique. It was supposed to go up for auction a year ago by Gatewest coin. There is no such example in the national currency collection.

 The story goes on to say that there was a reserve of $2,900 CDN, they say that they had sold a $500 bond from the 1930's (a much more common issue) for about $1,300.

Dear Ottawa:

I just purchased one of these bonds, also a $50 1917 Victory Loan Bond
for $895.00.

In 2007, $200.00 from 1974 is worth:

 $840.63  using the Consumer Price Index 
 $692.76  using the GDP deflator 
 $978.38  using the value of consumer bundle 
 $806.59  using the unskilled wage 
 $1,331.04  using the nominal GDP per capita 
 $1,877.64  using the relative share of GDP 
 
We paid about the same in $$ terms...

May we speak about these neat bonds?

Larry

libertyloanbond@optonline.net