2 Dollars = 10 Shillings

The Commercial Bank of the Midland District was chartered under Upper Canada's 1821 Free Banking legislation and operated out of Kingston, Ontario — then a town of modest commercial weight but strategically positioned on Lake Ontario. The dual denomination, two dollars on one side of the ledger and ten shillings on the other, reflects the genuine monetary confusion of 1830s Upper Canada, where British sterling, American dollars, and Halifax currency all circulated simultaneously with no fixed official relationship between them.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson were among the most technically capable security printers in North America at the time, responsible for a significant portion of early Canadian chartered bank paper. The Kingston bank's decision to go to New York for printing rather than use a local or British firm was entirely typical of Upper Canadian institutions in this period.