Canadian banknote wins major award
Ten-dollar bill featuring civil rights icon recognized for exceptional design.
A ground-breaking banknote featuring Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond has captured a prestigious design award from the International Bank Note Society.
Named IBNS Banknote of the Year for 2018, the ten-dollar bill features a vertical design and bears images of Desmond on its face and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on the back. The prize was announced earlier this year.
Desmond, a Nova Scotian businesswoman, was jailed in 1946 for refusing to leave a whites-only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. In 2018, with the launch of the new bill, she became the first non-royal woman to appear by herself on a Canadian banknote.
The Canadian Bank Note Company and the Bank of Canada designed the ten-dollar bill. Desmond’s image was engraved by Canadian master engraver Jorge Peral. Desmond’s sister, Wanda Robson, took part in the banknote’s 2018 unveiling ceremony at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
Desmond died in 1965. Forty-five years later, the Nova Scotia government officially apologized for her arrest and granted Desmond a posthumous free pardon. She is today recognized as a Canadian civil rights pioneer.