20 Dollars

The 1935 Canadian series was the first issued by the newly established Bank of Canada, which had opened for business on March 11 of that year after years of political debate over whether Canada needed a central bank at all. The Great Depression settled the argument. Two distinct versions of each denomination were printed simultaneously — one in English, one in French — making the 1935 series unique in Canadian banknote history; no subsequent series maintained fully bilingual parallel issues at every denomination level.

G.F. Towers was the Bank's first Governor, Osborne its first Deputy. The Canadian Bank Note Company engraved and printed the entire series from its Ottawa plant.