20 Dollars / 4 Pounds 3 Shillings 4 Pence

The dual denomination — 20 dollars and its sterling equivalent of 4 pounds 3 shillings 4 pence — reflects a practice the Canadian chartered banks maintained well into the twentieth century for facilitating cross-border commercial transactions, particularly with British correspondent banks. By 1938 the sterling equivalent had become largely ceremonial; Canada had effectively been on a dollar-only footing for decades, and the pound conversion was a vestige that no customer was actually using to calculate anything.

The Royal Bank had been printing through the Canadian Bank Note Company since the early twentieth century, and this issue carries the familiar security features of late-1930s CBNCo production. The S-prefix Pick reference places it in the chartered bank series rather than government issue — an important distinction, as these were private commercial obligations, not legal tender.