2 Dollars = 2 Piastres / 10 Shillings

Army Bill Office notes were wartime instruments, authorized under legislation passed in 1812 to fund British military operations in the Canadas without shipping specie across the Atlantic during the war with the United States. The dual denomination — dollars and piastres on one face, shillings on the other — reflects the genuine monetary plurality of Lower Canada at the time, where Halifax currency, Spanish dollars, and local reckoning coexisted in daily commerce.

The 1814 issues came late in the war, by which point Army Bills had earned an unusual degree of public confidence — largely because they bore interest and were redeemable at par, something earlier colonial paper had rarely managed. Redemption after the peace was handled without significant discount.