5 Dollars

The Bank of Hamilton was a Canadian chartered bank that operated from 1872 until its absorption by the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1924, following a period of serious financial strain. This note was printed in Chicago by the Western Bank Note & Engraving Company, a firm that handled a significant volume of Canadian chartered bank work during this period — the cross-border arrangement was entirely routine, as Canadian banks regularly sourced engraving from American security printers.

The Bank of Hamilton's later years were troubled; by the early 1920s its capital position had deteriorated badly enough that the merger with the Canadian Bank of Commerce was effectively a rescue. Notes from the 1904 series predate that decline by two decades.