5 Dollars

The Royal Bank of Canada was still headquartered in Montreal in 1913, having only recently outgrown its Halifax origins, and was in the middle of an aggressive national expansion. Canadian chartered banks issued their own currency under the Bank Act, and the Royal Bank's notes circulated alongside those of over a dozen competing institutions — a system that persisted until the Bank of Canada's establishment in 1934 effectively ended private note issue.

The American Bank Note Company's Ottawa facility handled much of Canada's chartered bank work during this period, giving the series a consistency of engraving quality that distinguishes it from earlier issues printed in New York.