20 Dollars

The Bank of Nova Scotia's 1925 Dominion-era chartered bank notes occupy an awkward historical position: by this point, the Dominion government had been steadily encroaching on chartered bank note issuance for decades, and the 1935 establishment of the Bank of Canada would effectively end the commercial banks' right to circulate their own currency altogether. This note was issued under the 1923 Bank Act, which capped chartered bank circulation at the paid-up capital of the issuing institution.

The Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa produced the series. CBNC had a near-monopoly on chartered bank printing by this period, having absorbed much of the earlier competition. Surviving examples frequently show heavy teller handling — these circulated hard in the Maritime branches where Scotiabank retained its deepest retail roots.