The note pledges that it can, at some specified date, be redeemed for goods or services or for conventional money [image: promissory note]. Promissory notes have a special place in the history of money. They are an early example of a great and enduring invention – paper money – "the gift," according to John Kenneth Galbraith, "of Americans and Canadians to the Western world."
10 In the late 17th century, the American colonies faced similar problems and came up with the same response: they issued promissory notes. While both the United States and Canada were pioneers in developing paper money, the style of each country's first paper money was quite different.