5 Shillings

The Bank of Fredericton was a short-lived institution — chartered but perpetually undercapitalized, it struggled to establish credibility in a colonial credit market already dominated by the Bank of New Brunswick and the Saint John-based competition. Notes of this bank are rare precisely because the bank itself barely functioned as a going concern before its effective collapse.

One attribution worth scrutinizing: The Canadian Bank Note & Litho Co. did not exist under that name in 1838. The firm's lineage traces through several predecessor operations, and catalog attributions for early New Brunswick issues sometimes reflect the successor company that held the original plates rather than the actual printer at time of issue.