20 Shillings/Chelins = 4 Dollars

The Banque du Peuple was a Montreal cooperative institution with strong ties to the Patriote movement, founded in 1835 partly as a political counterweight to the anglophone-dominated Bank of Montreal. By 1854 that ideological edge had softened considerably, but the bank retained its French-Canadian character and its bilingual approach to note denominations — hence the dual-language, dual-currency statement that is more than cosmetic. The £1 sterling equivalent and the four-dollar conversion reflect the genuinely confused monetary environment of the Province of Canada before Confederation standardized on decimal currency in 1858.

The Banque du Peuple eventually failed in 1895 after a fraud scandal involving its directors.