I've been looking at the Canadian banknotes lately trying to discover if there might be 2 bills in the one bill. Something like a lawful money side and a legal tender side. I've looked left to right, top and bottom, back and front. I think I might have figured it out. At least on the modern bills. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I would say that the figurehead on the bills is the dividing line. On some bills (we're in a currency transition), the figurehead is not at the halfway point. There is one side that says "Bank of Canada", and "This note is legal Tender". The figurehead is always facing, if only slightly, away from that side of the bill. On the older series, the side being faced away from is quite a bit smaller than in the new series. On that side, nowhere on it will it say "dollar" in any form. It's just a numeric form number. In the new series, silver holograms of various parliament towers are on this side. In the previous series, this was not the case. Shift in legal principles, maybe??

On the other side, is the side that the figurehead is looking at, if even slightly as in the new $20, it has printed out the number in word along with the word 'dollar', as well as the numeric number. I would appear that this side could be the lawful money side. Nowhere on this side is legal tender mentioned, or the Bank of Canada. On this side, are the signatures of the "Governor" and "Deputy Governor", however only those words are used, not Bank of Canada...

There seems to be a color change in the middle of the figurehead. Maybe that's the sides being 'defined'.

The best I can figure is that the side that the figureheads is facing is the lawful money side... Kinda a hide in plain sight thing. They are facing the lawful side saying to look that way in 'silent appeal'.

I may have to dig out my historical collection of Banknotes, and try to see how and why things have changed.

Anyone that has the ability to describe further what is happening, please feel free to chime in.