1 Louis/Pound 5 Chelins/Shillings = 5 Dollars

The Banque du Peuple had an unusual political character for a colonial-era bank: it was founded in 1835 largely by Patriote-sympathizing francophone merchants, and its early years were shadowed by the 1837–38 Lower Canada Rebellion. That it survived the rebellion and its aftermath at all is noteworthy. By 1845, the bank had stabilized enough to issue notes like this one, but it remained perpetually undercapitalized relative to its anglophone rivals and finally failed in 1895 after a fraud scandal involving its management.

The trilingual denomination — French, English, and a dollar equivalent — reflects Lower Canada's commercial reality, where transactions crossed currency systems routinely.