4 Dollars

The $4 denomination was a practical workaround unique to British North American banking. With a Spanish dollar worth approximately 5 shillings and British currency still circulating alongside colonial paper, a $4 note equated to one pound sterling at the prevailing rate — making it genuinely useful at a time when merchants still kept dual accounts in dollars and pounds. The denomination disappeared once decimal currency was firmly standardized in Canada after 1858, which makes this 1859 issue a near-final example of the type.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson maintained a Montreal operation alongside their better-known New York house, and this note was printed there rather than exported from the United States.