1 Dollar = 5 Shillings

The Commercial Bank of the Midland District was one of Upper Canada's chartered banks, operating out of Kingston, Ontario during a period when colonial currency law permitted — and essentially required — local institutions to denominate notes in dual currencies. The dollar-shilling equivalence printed on this note reflects the messy monetary reality of pre-Confederation Canada, where American dollars and British sterling both circulated freely alongside local paper, and issuers had to acknowledge both systems to remain credible with the public.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co. — which reorganized as Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson during this period — was the dominant security printer for North American bank notes in the 1840s, later becoming the American Bank Note Company. The uncertainty in the printer credit is a dating issue, not a production mystery: the firm changed its name around 1843, placing notes from this year squarely on the transition.