5 Dollars

The Bank of Ottawa was a mid-sized regional institution that managed to stay independent through several rounds of Canadian banking consolidation before finally being absorbed by the Bank of Nova Scotia in 1919. This note predates the absorption by over a decade, issued during a period when the bank was actively expanding its branch network into northern Ontario and Quebec.

The American Bank Note Company printed from its New York facilities despite what the catalog records as an Ottawa printing location — a common point of confusion, as many Canadian chartered bank notes of this period were engraved and struck in New York with only finishing or overprinting handled domestically.