Imperial Bank of Canada 1902 and 1907 "double-size" Waterlow notes.

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Dear Friends:
            My ancient Charlton catalogue lists  color  schemes  for  these  notes  which do not match with the  images which I have been able to find. I suspect this may be because proof notes were  not always printed in the same  color(s) which  were finally selected for use on notes printed for circulation.
             RE  the  1902  $20:    Charlton said  (in 1980)  that  this  note had a "blue" obverse frame and a "red-orange"  reverse,  whereas the one image of a circu-lation note which I have found has a black (not blue) obverse frame and a green  (not red-orange) reverse.  Anybody out there have one of these?
                 RE  the  1902 and 1907  $50's:  Charlton said  these had black obverse frame and "carmine" reverse,   and implies  that  these were the colors for both the 1902 and the 1907 issues.   I have an image of a 1907 note, which does indeed  have a black obverse frame but a green  (not carmine)  reverse.  So  what  was  the color of the 1902  reverse:  carmine  or  green??
              RE  the  1902  and  1907  $100's:  Charlton said  1902  issue had a "blue"
obverse frame and  an "ochre" reverse,  but the 1907 issue had a "black" obverse frame and a "blue" reverse."  The one image I have found is of the 1907  issue and does indeed have the black obverse frame and the blue reverse, as described by Charlton.     So the question then is:  what were the true colors of the 1902  $100's which circulated??   Were they really different from  the  1907 colors??
              My thanks to you all for your continuing  assistance.   I hope to have volumes I and II  (of  III planned)  of  my color atlas available for viewing at the Memphis Paper Money Show next summer.    Happy  2008 to all.
                                                          Bernard Schaaf, MD
 

Is there any likelihood that your "Color Atlas" of Canadian currency will be permanently posted somewhere on the Internet?

A lot of Waterlow "specimens" were printed in unauthorized colours to illustrate the kind of work the printing company did.  These were not ordered by the bank named on the notes, and some authorities question whether they should be called specimens at all.  They definitely are not colour trials.  These off-colour promotional Waterlow specimens exist for a lot of the notes that company did for Canadian banks in the early 1900s.  This is explained on page 51 of the 5th edition.
The back of the issued $20 is known to be green.
The off-colour $20 sold last fall was one such Waterlow specimen.  I doubt very much that the Imperial Bank would have changed the colours of its double size notes from the 1902 to the 1907 issue; surviving issued notes are largely extinct and these Waterlow specimens have muddied the water a good deal so far as the true issued colours are concerned.

           Dear Bob:    Once again,  thank you  for  the  help.  This is not the first time I have run into confusion about whether the colors used on specimen or proof  notes were  the same as the colors eventually used on issued  notes.
           Dear  Ottawa:     You ask an  excellent  question, and one which I am not yet  able to answer.   My  problem is  that I am accumulating images from any-where I can:  from  books,  from  the  Internet,  from E-bay,  from  the Bank of Canada, from the Forum,  without regard to such items as copyrights, owner privacy, etc.,  this  because this  album  was  originally intended for me and my Canadian  daughters alone, plus one extra copy  for an old friend  (viewable at Memphis Paper Money Show each summer).   I must tell you that my solicitations to the Forum have yielded much helpful information and advice from several collectors but almost no images of rare notes.  I have always wondered if some collectors  may be holding back images of their  rarest notes from me because they fear that I will indeed publish them without  authorization or without proper credit.   During my days as an active collector I owned four or five US "star"  (replacement)  bank- notes which were each unique, and I was always happy to allow photographs for publications, books, etc.,  but  I do understand that some other collectors  may prefer to withhold images  of their rarest notes.   The only incentive which I can offer to encourage contribution of hig-res images of rare notes to me is to offer to trade other images of  other rare notes, either Canadian or US,  but  without regard to copyrights or to owner's privacy;   so  far I have had no such requests from anyone.    I understand that there is a full-color atlas of USA currency,  but  I  have not seen it and I do not know if it includes every single note or if it has images of all reverses,  but I am not aware that there is any such full-color fronts-and-backs atlas of  Canada  other  then  my own  (my volume  on  Canada Government Currency is complete and was available for viewing at 2007 Memphis show,  but  my  understanding from my friend there is that there was almost no interest in it).   
               I had thought of the idea of posting on the Forum a list of those Chartered images which I still need,  with  the idea that this might shake loose a few images from the Forum members.  I am now working in the M's,  so such a list would now include some  thirty or so images.   And  I am even now still willing to provide  my  images of rare notes in exchange for  images which I still  lack  (as mentioned earlier, the one I most crave is the CBC 1887 $10). 
               If the Forum could reassure me about the question of legality  of my posting a few selected images,  I could be persuaded to submit some  (this  assuming I can figure out how to "upload" and "send"  such  images---I  think  my daughters can show me how to do this).   Is there any particular image in the A-M
banks which you would  specially like to see??
                 Happy New To All----          Bernard Schaaf  MD
                                                           Former member and director SPMC, IBNS