Canadian Journey 20-dollar error note surfaces


Winston Brown of Toronto, Ontario, has recently gone public with a dramatic example of a modern error. The $20 from 2004’s Canadian Journey series has the holographic stripe on the front right, the windowed security thread on the back right, and the watermark is upside down (compare top pair of images with normal note below).

The Bank of Canada has confirmed that the note is genuine and postulates that the error is a result of an uncut sheet of banknote paper being being rotated 180 degrees before being fed into its presses in Ottawa. Since each sheet contains 45 notes, there must have been 44 other examples of this error with serial numbers similar to that found on Brown’s note: EZM7459230. However, his note was found in circulation in 2006 (though a 2004 issue, the note is dated 2006 on the back), and Brown isn’t aware of any other similar notes that have surfaced to date. It’s possible they escaped notice and may be lost, destroyed, collected, or waiting to be discovered.

Brown intends to sell his error note via auction at some point in the future. Interested parties may contact him via email: w_brown_2007@hotmail.com.

Courtesy of Winston Brown.