1870 $1 - Medium Date

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I recently bought this note which I thought was a Montreal Large Date only to see it identified as a Small Date in the CPMS registry.

I was reminded of a conversation I had a fellow collector years ago about a possible "Medium Date" variety.  After comparing with both small date and large date notes, I've concluded that this note is definitely of a different variety from both the Small and Large types.  You can see that the bottom of the "7" in the "Medium Date" variety hangs down lower than the the "8" whereas they are at the same height on the "Small Date" variety.  Apart from the "7" digit, the "Medium Date" is closer in size to the "Small Date" and doesn't intersect with other elements of the design as it does in the "Large Date" variety.

Small Date:

Medium Date:

Large Date:

Looking through the notes posted in The Notes, I was able to find one other example.  Both of these feature plate number C7.  I haven't been able to find any other notes from the "7" plate so I have no idea if A7, B7 and D7 would also feature this variety.  From what I can tell, the plates up to 6 are all Small Date variety and plates 8, 9 and 10 are Large Date.  It seems that this is true for both the Montreal and Toronto domiciles so I am assuming that the same plates were used to print both.  I haven't been able to find any Toronto notes printed with plate 7  but it seems fair to assume that they could exist.  As for St. John/Halifax, all notes have plate numbers no higher than 6 which is consistent with the Small Date variety.

Please take a look if you have any note with plate number 7 to add to the list!

This is an interesting observation in the 1870 series, AL-Bob.

I have a Payable at Toronto with plate B7 and a medium date as you have described.  Your hypothesis is good so far.

JBN

Very nice note but as per charlton and photo provided this would indeed be considered the large date variety. There is no mention of medium date in charlton so assuming that there will be variances in the large date.

I guess it's a mater of opinion as to what constitutes a distinct variety.  I don't hold up the Charlton as the ultimate authority.  Their job is to report on what collectors are interested in, not to decide for us what is significant or not.

I have a Payable at Toronto with plate B7 and a medium date as you have described.  Your hypothesis is good so far.

That is very good information as it confirms that this "variety" (or variance) is not unique to C7 and also not unique to the Montreal domicile.  Do you happen to have a picture?

This is an interesting topic for us Dominion of Canada nerds!

I asked a very wise and knowledgeable collector/researcher about 1870 large & small dates.  He is intrigued by AL-Bob’s hypothesis linking date size and plate numbers.
 
His quote regarding the manufacture of 1870 face printing plates “BABN did not have the technology to transfer the entire plate in a single step for each note position at that time… design elements were impressed into each plate element individually… Date digits would have been punched in manually along with check letters and so on, creating the possibility for varieties.”

He offered another image for plate 7; this Montreal example with check letter A.

We now have A7, B7 and D7 with a "medium date".  More examples are need to see if plate 7 is homogenous or offers a variety of date sizes.

It is also noteworthy that the same face plates could be used for printing different domiciled notes (Montreal, Toronto etc.) – the sheet number colour, applied after printing, is the only distinguishing difference.  As we have seen with the 1878 issue and others, the bank note printers were producing different domiciled notes at the same time.

Let’s keep digging for plates and dates!
JBN