4 Dollars

The $4 denomination was a Canadian commercial banking peculiarity — it existed because chartered banks could issue notes in any denomination they chose, and $4 filled a practical gap between the $2 and $5 values in everyday wage payments and retail transactions. By Confederation, the denomination was already fading; Dominion currency legislation would soon push private banks toward standardized denominations, making late-survival $4 notes from any issuer uncommon.

The British-American Bank Note Company had only recently been established in Montreal when this note was produced, formed in 1866 from the merger of two American security printing firms seeking Canadian business. The Merchants Bank itself was founded in 1864 under Sir Hugh Allan, who would later be destroyed politically by the Pacific Scandal of 1873.