5 Dollars Royal Bank of Canada

The Royal Bank's 1938 chartered bank notes were among the last private Canadian currency issues to see genuine circulation before the Bank of Canada's gradual monopolization of the note supply effectively ended the chartered bank era. The Bank of Canada Act of 1934 and subsequent amendments allowed existing chartered bank issues to remain legal tender but systematically squeezed them out — by 1944, chartered banks could no longer issue new notes in denominations under $5, and the Royal Bank was among the institutions that quietly wound down its circulation role in the years that followed.

Canadian Bank Note Company produced this series at its Ottawa facility, which also handled Dominion of Canada and early Bank of Canada printing — a useful detail when differentiating printer from issuer on notes that carry both institutional names.