5 Dollars

The Merchants Bank of Halifax was chartered in 1864 and grew quickly into one of the more ambitious Maritime institutions of the Confederation period — it eventually became the Royal Bank of Canada in 1901 after a name change to Merchants Bank of Canada in 1868. This note predates that transition by three decades, placing it squarely in the bank's Halifax-focused early years before its aggressive westward expansion.

Perkins, Bacon & Petch had by 1870 accumulated considerable experience printing security documents for colonial issuers across the British Empire. The London production is worth noting given that many Canadian chartered bank notes of this period were printed by American firms, particularly the American Bank Note Company.