4 Dollars = 1 Pound

The four-dollar denomination was a direct product of the dual-currency reality in pre-Confederation New Brunswick, where both Halifax currency (pounds, shillings, pence) and U.S. dollars circulated simultaneously. The $4 = £1 parity was not arbitrary — it reflected the established exchange rate between Halifax currency and the American dollar, and printing both on the face was a practical commercial necessity for a port town with heavy cross-border trade.

The Commercial Bank of New Brunswick was chartered in 1834 and remained one of the smaller Saint John institutions. It did not survive Confederation-era consolidation, absorbed into the broader Canadian banking reorganization of the 1860s and 1870s.

ABNC's New York production for Maritime colonial banks in this period typically used shared plate elements across multiple clients — worth noting when authenticating any example.