New $20 Bill Features Vertical Design, Images of King, and Vimy Ridge Memorial

For the first time since 1954, Canada’s $20 bill will feature a monarch other than Queen Elizabeth II, with the Bank of Canada unveiling a new vertically oriented note featuring King Charles III while retaining the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

The Bank unveiled the new bank note on Sept. 3 alongside Governor General Louise Arbour.

“This new $20 bank note is striking, symbolic and secure,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in a news release. “The note’s advanced and dynamic security features are combined with images that reflect Canada’s beauty and its history. I hope it evokes pride in Canada and confidence in its bank notes.”

The back of the note retains the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, which the Bank said represents Canada’s contributions and sacrifices in military conflicts throughout its history.

The $20 is Canada’s second vertical bank note, following the $10 note featuring civil rights pioneer and businesswoman Viola Desmond.

The Bank said it consulted Canadians, government partners, and stakeholders, including accessibility groups and organizations connected to the Vimy memorial, during the note’s development.

The new note is made from a single piece of polymer with transparent areas and includes a purple security stripe with moving images that appear when the note is tilted. A “bubble” security feature has a three-dimensional appearance and magnifies the numbers 20 inside.

Other security features include a maple leaf that appears to pulse when the note is tilted, moving bands within the poppy that appear to spin, and a background pattern in which the number 20 appears to transform into maple leaves. The large $20 number and the word CANADA are also printed with raised ink, allowing them to be identified by touch.

The Bank said the features are designed to help deter counterfeiting and allow Canadians to authenticate the notes. It also said the raised ink makes it easier for people who are blind or partially sighted to identify the denomination.

The note features floral emblems representing Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories, with stems and leaves connecting the flowers to those depicted in the Books of Remembrance on Parliament Hill.

The botanical elements surrounding the portrait include plants that the Bank said reflect King Charles III’s interest in the environment.

Four plants identified by the Bank as culturally significant to First Nations people are also included: wild strawberries, western red cedar, braided sweetgrass and arctic cotton. The Bank said its Indigenous Advisory Council recommended the plants, which it described as symbols of “sustenance, gratitude and healing.”

Maple leaves are incorporated throughout the design and security features, with the Bank describing the new $20 as “undeniably Canadian” because the symbol “is recognized around the world as synonymous with Canada.”

Meanwhile, the note retains an image of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, which was was unveiled in 1936 to commemorate the Canadians who served and sacrificed during World War I. The memorial stands on Vimy Ridge, the site of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, where all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time from April 9 to 12, 1917.

Poppies on the note are also symbol of remembrance and of carrying on the memory of those lost in battle, the Bank said. Their inclusion is also a nod to the flowers that grew on battlefields and in cemeteries along the Western Front during World War I.

The Bank of Canada plans to put the new $20 notes into circulation starting in late February 2027.