20 Dollars

The Union Bank of Canada had its roots in Quebec City, where it was chartered in 1865 as the Union Bank of Lower Canada before rebranding a decade later. By 1886 the bank was expanding aggressively into Ontario and the west, and the American Bank Note Company's New York engraving plant was the prestige choice for Canadian chartered banks wanting notes that would inspire confidence at the teller window — difficult to counterfeit, immediately recognizable as serious paper.

The $20 denomination was a substantial sum in 1886 Canada, rarely handled by ordinary depositors. Notes at this level moved between merchants, brokers, and bank branches rather than through daily retail trade, which partly accounts for the relative scarcity of high-grade survivors in this series.