4 Dollars

Four-dollar denominations were a practical fixture in mid-nineteenth-century Canadian private banking — the sum equated to one Spanish milled dollar and three shillings Halifax currency, which remained a useful unit of account long after decimal currency was formally adopted in 1858. The Dominion Bank, chartered in 1871 and operating initially out of Toronto, introduced this note in its early years of operation before the federal government's gradual squeeze on chartered bank note-issuing privileges began to reshape denominations toward more standardized values.

The American Bank Note Company was by then the dominant supplier to Canadian chartered banks, with established intaglio facilities in New York doing the heavy production work. The $4 denomination would not survive long into the following decade.