1 Dollar = 5 Shillings

Farmer's Joint Stock Banking Co. was one of dozens of Upper Canadian free banking institutions operating in the years immediately following the Province of Canada's 1850 Free Banking Act — though this note predates that legislation by a year, suggesting the institution was either anticipating the regulatory change or operating under earlier provincial charter authority. The dual denomination reflects the transitional currency arithmetic of colonial Canada, where Halifax currency (shillings) and the dollar unit coexisted awkwardly until decimal currency was standardized in 1858.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson printed extensively for North American banks throughout the 1840s before merging into the American Bank Note Company in 1858. Their New York engraving work from this period is identifiable by its fine lathe-work guilloche patterns.