This summer, Canada will celebrate its 150th anniversary of Confederation. To mark the event, the Bank of Canada has issued a new commemorative $10 banknote.
The note includes four portraits of notable Canadian parliamentarians chosen for their significant roles in shaping the country, namely Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Agnes Macphail and James Gladstone. It is the first time that a Canadian woman and an Indigenous Canadian have been included in a Bank of Canada banknote design.
The reverse of the note includes five illustrations of Canada’s “natural beauty and unique landscapes”, including the mountainous peaks of The Lions, also known as the Twin Sisters, a wheat field from the Prairie provinces, the Canadian Shield, Cape Bonavista and the Northern Lights.
Security features include KINEGRAM ZERO.ZERO by Kurz incorporating the names of all of Canada’s provinces and territories and the date when they each entered Confederation. An image of an owl is also visible in the foil, representing the “Owl’s Bouquet” by acclaimed Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, as is Canada’s national flag and coat of arms.
An optically variable ink feature, thought to be SICPA’s SPARK® Live Sandune ink feature, is included on the front of the note. It depicts an archway found within Canada’s Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, dedicated in 1927 to all Canadians who died in military service during the First World War.
The Bank of Canada recently issued the below video on its YouTube channel, detailing the new banknote’s security features:
