20 Dollars

The Royal Bank of Canada was still headquartered in Halifax when its earliest chartered note series were issued, but by 1909 the bank had relocated to Montreal and was aggressively expanding across the country. This particular denomination sat at the upper end of practical daily commerce — useful for large mercantile transactions but rarely handled by ordinary wage earners, which partly accounts for its relative scarcity in circulated grades today.

American Bank Note Company produced the plates in New York, as they did for a significant portion of Canadian chartered banking paper during this period. The ABNC's dominance of that market meant many competing banks shared similar engraving conventions, though the Royal Bank series maintained its own distinct plate numbering.

Chartered bank issues in Canada were privately backed obligations, redeemable by the issuing institution — not government legal tender.