20 Dollars

The Merchants Bank of Canada was one of the older chartered banks in the country, tracing its roots to the 1860s — but it would not survive the following decade after this note was issued. The bank collapsed in 1922 in one of Canada's most damaging chartered bank failures, wiping out shareholders and triggering parliamentary debate that directly accelerated the move toward tighter federal banking supervision.

ABNC printed the bulk of Canadian chartered bank issues from their New York facilities during this period, supplying engraved plates to dozens of institutions simultaneously. The Merchants Bank series shares production characteristics with several contemporaries, which occasionally causes attribution confusion in mixed lots.