20 Dollars

The Banque d'Hochelaga was a Montreal-based French-Canadian institution that operated from 1874 until its 1924 merger into the Banque Canadienne Nationale. By 1914 it remained one of the few chartered banks actively printing high-denomination notes through Waterlow and Sons, whose London facility produced work for colonial and dominion issuers across the British world.

Canadian chartered bank notes of this period existed under the Finance Act framework, which set strict reserve and redemption obligations. The $20 denomination saw limited retail use — most day-to-day commerce ran on $1, $2, and $5 notes — making higher values largely instruments of interbank settlement. Survivors at this denomination are correspondingly scarce.