5 Dollars

The Union Bank of Canada had its roots in Quebec City, where it was chartered in 1865, but by the 1890s the bank was pushing aggressively into western expansion — a strategy that would eventually outrun its capital and contribute to its absorption by the Royal Bank in 1925. This 1893 note was issued during a period of institutional confidence that, in retrospect, was already fragile.

American Bank Note Company produced the series, as they did for a large proportion of Canadian chartered bank issues of this period. ABNC's Toronto competitor, the British American Bank Note Company, was the more common choice for Quebec issuers by this point, which makes the ABNC contract here worth noting.