5 Dollars

The Maritime Bank of the Dominion of Canada was chartered in 1872 and operated primarily out of Saint John, New Brunswick — which makes this Ottawa-printed note an early example of the British American Bank Note Company's growing dominance over Canadian chartered bank printing in the 1880s. BABNC had only been formally established in 1866 through a merger of two earlier firms, and by the time this note was issued they were consolidating most of the country's private bank printing work.

The bank itself failed in 1887, making its note-issuing lifespan under fifteen years. Receivership was contentious enough that it prompted a landmark Privy Council ruling in 1892 — *Liquidators of the Maritime Bank v. Receiver General of New Brunswick* — which clarified the constitutional standing of provincial governments as ordinary creditors of failed banks rather than preferred ones.