The Weyburn Security Bank and its Rare Banknotes
By George Manz, FRCNA

In the early 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway began to bring settlers into southern Saskatchewan to farm the prairie landscape. The village of Weyburn was founded in 1899.

The Weyburn Security Company was formed in Weyburn in 1902 by a small group of American settlers from South Dakota and Minnesota. They purchased 50,000 acres of land with the aim to settle southeastern Saskatchewan.

They soon realized for their real estate, private banking, insurance, and lumber business to succeed, they needed to set up a chartered bank. So, in 1910, they petitioned the Canadian Parliament for a charter to incorporate as The Weyburn Security Bank.

On January 1, 1911, the Weyburn Security Bank opened for business with $1 Million in capital and branches in nine southern Saskatchewan rural towns and villages.

In 1924, the Weyburn Security Bank had branches in 27 different towns and villages as well as Weyburn. For more than 20 years, the small bank had to compete with much larger Canadian chartered banks.

Initially, the Weyburn Security Bank prospered by providing banking and other services to its mainly farming clientele.

Unfortunately, the Great Depression resulted in three successive crop failures. So, the Weyburn Security Bank had discussions with the Imperial Bank of Canada, which until then did not have any bank branches south of the mail line of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1931, the Weyburn Security Bank ceased to exist after it merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada.

The Imperial Bank of Canada continued until 1961, when it amalgamated with the Canadian Bank of Commerce to become the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).

The best history of the Weyburn Security Bank is Cecil Tannahill's ground-breaking book Saskatchewan Trade Tokens, Paper Money Scrip. In it, Tannahill writes,

And what notes they are! The face of the $5 note depicts a train in a city, while the $10 note portrays allegorical women and children. The $20 note has the portrait of a woman in an oval frame supported by two cherubs.

Tannahill writes,

The reason why Weyburn Security Bank notes are so rare is because the WSB officials cared about the appearance of the notes and then burned the vast majority of them. The 9th Edition of Charlton Standard Catalogue Canadian Bank Notes lists only 50 notes known to exist with nine of them in institutional collections.

The Regina Coin Show will display four issued Weyburn Security Bank notes at its 2022 Spring Show and Sale. As well, five Proof Weyburn Security Bank notes will accompany the display.

The show takes place on April 23-24, 2022 at a new venue: The Italian Club, 2148 Connaught Street in Regina.

George Manz is President of the Regina Coin Club and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association.

For more information on the Regina Coin Club, see:
https://www.reginacoinclub.ca/