Union Bank of Newfoundland $10 note, 1 May 1889

The Union and Commercial Banks both closed on Black Monday, 10 December 1894. Their withdrawal from business caught many people in Newfoundland and Labrador off guard – businesses collapsed, workers became suddenly unemployed, and the country, which used bank notes from both institutions as its main source of currency, was left with no reliable circulating medium.

Image courtesy of National Currency Collection, Currency Museum – Bank of Canada. Photo by Gord Carter, Ottawa. (1964.0037.00006.000).