the Bank of Clifton and the Bank of Western Canada. The bank failures made their notes worthless, and the resulting scandal increased pressure on the government for greater bank regulation. In 1860, the provincial Minister of Finance, Alexander Tilloch Galt, proposed that the government issue bank notes, replacing notes issued by the private banks. The banks, fearing a loss of profits, opposed the proposal and the Government quickly withdrew it. Six years later, the proposal re-surfaced, this time driven by the government's need for money. It was having trouble raising loans either in Canada or in Britain and decided to issue provincial government notes as a way to raise money. The Provincial Notes Act authorized the Province to issue notes up to the value of $8million, backed partly by gold and partly by government debentures. They were redeemable in either Toronto or Montreal. Unlike Galt's proposal six years earlier, the private banks were not required to give up their power to issue bank notes, although they were offered financial inducements to do so. Any bank which did so could then act at the government's banker and its notes were deemed to be government notes. Only the Bank of Montreal did so, enabling it to act as the government's note issuer. It resumed issuing its own notes five years later. The initial issue was based on Bank of Montreal notes, over-printed with "Province of Canada". The first issue by the Province itself was on January 1, 1867, just half a year before Confederation. The Province of Canada notes served as the basis for the notes later issued by the new country. The 1867 issue consisted of a one-dollar note, featuring Samuel de Champlain and Jacques Cartier, with the provincial coat-of-arms; a two-dollar note, featuring Britannia and allegorical figures; a five-dollar note, featuring Queen Victoria, an indigenous woman, a lion and a ship under sail; a ten-dollar note, featuring Columbus, symbols of transportation, and beavers; a twenty-dollar note, featuring Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra, Princess of Wales, as well as beavers building a dam; and a fifty-dollar note featuring Mercury, the Roman god of commerce. Confederation, 1867 Canada was created in 1867 by the British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867). A federation, it originally had four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The federal Parliament was assigned exclusive jurisdiction over "Coins and