4 Dollars

The Colonial Bank of Canada was a short-lived institution operating out of Quebec, and this 4-dollar note reflects the genuinely peculiar denomination structure that some Canadian colonial banks adopted to bridge the awkward conversion between the old Halifax currency system and decimal dollars. The American Bank Note Company in New York was by 1859 the dominant supplier to Canadian chartered banks, having absorbed several rival firms and consolidated much of the engraving talent in the northeast.

The $4 denomination is the detail worth noting — rare enough in North American banking that its existence here almost certainly reflects a calculated decision to satisfy specific commercial transactions in a market still operating partly in pounds and shillings.