50 Piastres

The Banque d'Hochelaga was a Montreal-based French-Canadian chartered bank founded in 1874 to serve working-class francophone communities largely shut out of the Anglo-dominated banking establishment. By 1898 it had grown substantially, but it would not become the Banque Canadienne Nationale until 1924. Canadian chartered bank notes of this period circulated as de facto currency under the Bank Act, redeemable at par — the federal government tolerated private note issue well into the twentieth century.

The American Bank Note Company in New York printed the bulk of Canadian chartered bank paper through this period, and the relationship was longstanding. ABNC's intaglio work on Canadian issues from the 1890s is consistently precise.