10 Dollars/Piastres

La Banque Nationale was a Quebec-chartered institution serving a predominantly French-Canadian clientele, which explains the bilingual denomination — "10 Dollars / Piastres" — a linguistic accommodation that reflected both commercial pragmatism and the political sensitivities of the province. The bank operated from 1859 until its absorption into the Banque Canadienne Nationale in 1924.

The British American Bank Note Company, which printed this note at its Montreal facilities, had been established only a few years earlier specifically to keep Canadian chartered bank printing work on domestic soil rather than contracting it to American or British firms. By 1883 they were the dominant supplier to Quebec's private banking sector.