4 Dollars

The $4 denomination was a practical response to the pre-Confederation habit of quoting prices in both Halifax currency and dollars, where a £1 note equated to exactly $4. Canadian chartered banks issued fours alongside twos and ones well into the 1870s, though the denomination was never universal and disappeared from most issuers by the 1880s as decimal reckoning took firmer hold.

The Canada Bank Note Printing Co. was itself a relatively new operation in 1871, having consolidated several earlier engraving firms to serve the chartered banking system domestically rather than relying on American Bank Note or British printers. This note is among the earlier products of that consolidation.