1.000 Dollars

The 1954 $1,000 note is the highest denomination ever issued for general circulation in Canada, and it remained legal tender until January 2000, when the Bank of Canada withdrew the $500 and $1,000 notes specifically to impede money laundering — a decision driven by pressure from law enforcement rather than any monetary policy consideration. By that point, virtually all surviving examples had migrated from cash transactions into collections, making true circulated specimens genuinely uncommon.

The two signature combinations reflect the changeover from James Coyne to Louis Rasminsky as Governor in 1961, a transition that followed one of the more acrimonious public disputes between a central bank governor and a federal government in Canadian history.