Posted 11/12/2012 6:21 pm
"Shinplaster" is American slang for a worthless or depreciated bill. Probably originally applied to the Revolution-era Continental Currency. Later, in the late nineteenth century, the term was used for fractional currency circulating on the frontier, including the Canadian notes you're familiar with. I imagine "Shinplaster Bank" was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Heritage sold one of these; all they had to say about it was that it was an advertising note, and the first they had ever had on the auction block. $138.
