50 Dollars

The Canadian Bank of Commerce was one of a handful of chartered banks still exercising their legal right to issue private currency in 1917 — a privilege that would survive until the Bank of Canada Act of 1934 finally consolidated note issue under federal control. This $50 denomination would have circulated almost exclusively in commercial and wholesale transactions; few individuals handled notes of this size in ordinary life.

The American Bank Note Company's New York plant produced currency for dozens of issuers across the hemisphere during this period, and the ABNC's intaglio work on Canadian chartered bank notes from this era is generally among the finer examples of the craft. The 1917 date places production squarely within wartime austerity conditions, yet private bank printing contracts continued uninterrupted.