ON THE MONEY: Okanagan Lake once graced Canada’s $100 bill

PENTICTON – There is an old Canadian $100 bill with a landscape vignette on the back that should look familiar to residents in the Okanagan.

A view of Okanagan Lake looking north from the Penticton area towards Summerland and Naramata was part of a series of bank notes produced by The Bank of Canada in 1954, known as the “Canadian Landscape Series.”

The exact location of the shot is a bit of a mystery. Wikipedia claims the photo was taken on Munson Mountain, but Gary McDougall of the Penticton Museum Archives says the shot is too high and too far east to be taken from Munson.

"It's more likely to have been taken somewhere above Reservoir Road, on Campbell Mountain," McDougall says.

Media relations consultant for The Bank of Canada Amélie Ferron-Craig said the landscape scene was engraved by William Ford of the American Bank Note Company, who used a photo taken by the National Film Board as his inspiration.

The bill began circulating on Sept. 9, 1954.

Have you ever come across this $100 bill? If you have, please let us know.

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