Alberta Prosperity Certificate
One of my favourite notes. The Prosperity Certificate was an attempt by the Government of Alberta to stimulate spending and discourage hoarding of money during the depression.
Every week, on the date indicated on the back, the holder of one of these notes would have to buy and affix a 1 cent stamp to it. The plan was to have people constantly spending the notes so that when stamp day came around... someone else owned it. Think of it as a sort of monetary musical chairs. The experiment lasted less than a year, mainly because most people refused to accept them.
Less than 20,000 notes survived the subsequent recall.
Every week, on the date indicated on the back, the holder of one of these notes would have to buy and affix a 1 cent stamp to it. The plan was to have people constantly spending the notes so that when stamp day came around... someone else owned it. Think of it as a sort of monetary musical chairs. The experiment lasted less than a year, mainly because most people refused to accept them.
Less than 20,000 notes survived the subsequent recall.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Aidan Work on -
Sean,
This historically interesting note has never been listed at all either in Pick or in Charlton's catalogues of Canadian banknotes.
You should email some original 300 dpi scans to Owen Linzmayer of http://www.banknotenews.com ,so he can finally get it listed in his new world banknote catalogue under 'Alberta',as this was issued by the Government of the Province of Alberta,thus giving it an official status.
King Edward VIII of Great Britain was reigning at the time this note was issued.
This note was also called the 'Velocity Dollar',as it had an expiry date,just like Zimbabwe's Bearer Cheques & Agro-Cheques.Some people class this note as being a community currency note,just like the Canadian Tire 'tyre money' notes are.
Aidan.
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Permalink Reply by Aidan Work on
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Sean,
You can see some Canadian community currency notes on http://www.complementarycurrency.org ,including the Albertan $1 banknote.
I reckon that you should upload some photos of your Canadian Tire 'tyre money' notes into the gallery on there.
Aidan.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Archibald on -
Interesting piece of history, many different local American notes were produced during the depression years. It's interesting to see how Canada was also affected, we rarely hear about how the years during the great depression affected other countries around the world.~ Jim
U.S. Coin Collecting
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Permalink Reply by Aidan Work on
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Jim,
There are still local American notes being put out,especially the Ithaca Hours from Ithaca,New York.
Aidan.
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Permalink Reply by Aidan Work on
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Jim,
Sean has since bought a second example of this historically interesting banknote.
This second one was found in a $1 bargain bin.
Aidan.
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