5 Pounds The Royal Bank of Canada

By 1938, Canadian chartered banks were deep into the final years of their note-issuing privileges. The Bank of Canada had been established in 1934 and began monopolizing circulation currency almost immediately; chartered banks were given a grace period but faced escalating restrictions, and most had quietly wound down new issues well before the privilege was fully revoked in 1950. A pound-denominated note from this late is genuinely unusual — sterling-based issues had largely given way to dollar-denominated series decades earlier, and this note's existence suggests it was intended for specific commercial transactions, likely trade-related business in the Caribbean or Newfoundland, which did not join Confederation until 1949.