3 Dollars

The Farmer's Joint Stock Banking Company operated briefly in Upper Canada before being swept up in the wave of bank failures and consolidations that characterized mid-century Ontario finance. Free banking legislation in the province was poorly enforced, and several institutions of this type issued notes well in excess of their specie reserves — which is precisely why surviving examples are uncommon: many were either redeemed under duress or simply never returned to the issuer before it ceased operations.

The $3 denomination was a peculiarly North American habit, filling the gap between $2 and $5 in daily commerce. Canadian chartered banks used it routinely through the 1860s, after which Dominion legislation gradually squeezed out non-standard denominations.