1 Dollar = 5 Shillings

The Bank of Montreal was chartered in 1817 and is Canada's oldest chartered bank — this 1835 note predates Confederation by more than three decades, issued when the Province of Lower Canada still operated under a dual currency system that made the dollar/shilling equivalence printed on the face a practical necessity rather than a curiosity. Sterling-minded British settlers thought in shillings; American traders and merchants thought in dollars. The bilingual denomination was a commercial compromise.

Early Bank of Montreal notes from this period are genuinely rare survivors. Paper currency in Upper and Lower Canada circulated hard and wore out fast, and redemption drives in the mid-nineteenth century pulled most examples out of existence.