On 6 May 1935 the Bank of Canada, eight weeks old, issued a royal purple $25 note for the Silver Jubilee of George V - the King and Queen on the face, Windsor Castle on the back. It was the first commemorative banknote the Bank ever produced and the only $25 note it has ever issued, in this series or any since. The English printage stopped at 140,000; the French at 20,000.
An odd denomination with no job in commerce, it was bought as a keepsake from the start, which is why survivors exist at all grades and why the note trades constantly despite the small count. The French version is the sleeper: a low-serial example, F000005, brought $49,200 CAD certified CUNC-64 at the June 2017 Toronto Coin Expo.
The most collectible object the Bank of Canada ever put a face value on. Because it was saved deliberately, condition is the whole price ladder - and because it is the series' celebrity, it attracts the trimming, pressing and washing that chase every famous note. Grade the paper, not the story.
Mintage figures: United States Mint (Annual Report of the Director of the Mint), Royal Canadian Mint records, and — for the 1935 banknote issue — Bank of Canada printage records as published in the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.