John). In 1790, the colonial government issued £500 in treasury notes, in values up to £2. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island all issued treasury bills in the early years of the 19th century. During the War of 1812, the British Army issued a series of "Army bills", redeemable for government bills of exchange at London, with eventually £1.5million issued. All of those bills were redeemed in currency by 1816, which helped build confidence in government paper money. The Colony of British Columbia also issued paper money in the 1850s, denominated in pounds and later in dollars. Banks and bank notes As the level of commercial sophistication rose in the colonies, banks began to be founded. The banks then began to issue bank notes, with the first from the Montreal Bank (now the Bank of Montreal) in 1817, shortly after it was incorporated. Other banks, such as the Bank of Upper Canada, the Bank of New Brunswick, the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Bank of Prince Edward Island, followed suit, issuing their own bank notes. The right to issue bank notes was a valuable one. The notes amounted to an interest-free loan to the bank, which only became due if the holder of a note presented it to the bank to redeem it in coinage. The bank notes were only redeemable at the branches of the bank which issued them. Although the bank notes were generally well received by the populace, they could trade at a discount when they were far away from a bank branch where they could be redeemed. The notes issued by banks in Upper and Lower Canada tended to be denominated in both pounds and dollars, while the bank notes in the Atlantic provinces tended to be in pounds only. This difference reflected the greater commercial ties which Upper and Lower Canada had with the United States, while the Atlantic colonies mainly traded with Britain, less with the United States. Some merchants also issued paper notes which exchanged as currency. In Lower Canada, they were often referred to as "Bons", from the opening words "Bon pour", French for "Good for". Tokens In addition to issuing bank notes, some banks as well as merchants began to issue trade tokens. Although they had no legal status, they were accepted as currency on a local basis. The tokens were mainly imported from England. The banks