50 Dollars

The Canadian Bank of Commerce was one of the last chartered banks still issuing its own currency under the Bank Act when this note appeared. The 1917 date places it squarely in the period when the federal government was tightening its grip on private bank circulation — the Finance Act of that year was partly a wartime funding mechanism, and it quietly accelerated the centralization of currency that would eventually end chartered bank note issue altogether in 1944.

The American Bank Note Company handled intaglio work for several Canadian chartered banks during this period, often sharing engraved elements across clients. At the $50 denomination, circulation was light and attrition low — survival rates for high-value chartered notes from this era are deceptive, since many were held as interbank reserves rather than passing through public hands.