5 Dollars

The Bank of Hamilton was chartered in 1872 under the Bank Act of that year — this note dates to the very first years of operation, when the bank was still establishing its footing as a regional commercial institution in southwestern Ontario. The British American Bank Note Company, newly formed itself in 1866 through the merger of two earlier firms, was by this point the dominant supplier of chartered bank currency in Canada, handling production for several institutions simultaneously out of Montreal.

The Bank of Hamilton would ultimately survive until 1924, when it was absorbed by the Canadian Bank of Commerce during the wave of consolidations that followed the collapse of the Home Bank. Notes from this early 1872 issue are rarely encountered; attrition over five decades of active banking was considerable.