At the moment this is my earliest Canadian note: These were known as shinplasters, and unlike the fractional currency in the USA that stopped being issued in ca. 1875 - in Canada the 25 cent note was issued until the 1923 series stopped being circulated in the late 1920s. They were convenient for sending small amounts of money through the postal system.
Barclays Bank was a latecomer to the Canadian commercial banking system, only opening in 1929 - making it the last entry into the charter bank system. This vignette is proprietary to ABNCo and not Barclay's Bank. The black numeral 22 refers to the bank's sorting code in the note clearinghouse system.
A fairly modern era note, but with an ancient design that went deep into the 1860s and served Bank of Toronto well until the 1937 issue: Notice Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the centre vignette on the reverse. In Great Britain itself placing the monarch on banknotes was frowned upon by the government - Queen Victoria's image was on the City of Glasgow Bank's notes when the bank suffered a catastrophic failure in 1878. After that time the only exception was George II on Royal Bank of Scotland notes. Bank of England notes did not portray the monarch until Queen Elizabeth appeared on the lion and key 5 Pound note in 1957. Another notable exception allowed on Canadian charter notes was the British coat of Arms: These appeared on Royal Bank, and Bank of Scotland notes until 1931 when Lord Lyon advised the banks that they had to remove the British arms as it engendered government sponsorship of the privately held commercial banks. If Bank of Toronto got the memorandum, they ignored it.
