If these notes never existed then why are they listed in the charlton catalogue with price values?
Because it was assumed that they existed. Nobody questioned their existence until now. Remember that very little information in the catalogue is reviewed from one year to the next. It is harder to prove that something does NOT exist than it is to prove that something
does exist. The information about all notes of prefixes A/H and A/J being fully printed was likely added to the catalogue without giving it a whole lot of thought. The few paper money collectors active in the 1960s likely did not track regular note issues of the higher denominations. If there were collectors of prefixes and changeovers at the time, they were probably not interested in high denomination notes. The low catalogue prices for these notes are a significant clue that they don't exist. No supply, no demand, no market, and there is nothing to push prices higher for something you would think could be worth much more.
The only prefix that is mentioned to not exist is C/H. I find it hard to believe that 50 years later and no one knows the faith of these notes. I doubt that they were never released.
And yet the simple burden of proof of a picture of one of each of these notes seems to be highly elusive. Or, if not a picture, than some other indirect evidence like Bank reports. I think it's a bit erroneous to put faith in something that has no proof of existence instead of simply saying, "Well, maybe Beattie-Rasminsky notes started with new prefixes, B/H and B/J." It's not like there was any danger of the Bank running out of prefixes for $50 and $100 notes of the 1954 series.
Many people take things for granted, like the belief that the catalogue is incredibly well researched. Logic would say that a yearly publication that has been around for 35 years must be very accurate, and many people are too scared to believe otherwise. But more research into Canadian paper money has been done in the past 10 years than the previous 50. And quite a bit of information in the catalogue is over 10 years old. We are just starting to get things right these days.
My feeling is that the Bank of Canada would not object to releasing data on the 1954 series
vis-a-vis the changeover to Beattie-Rasminsky. However, I am not sure even THEY would know the answers to our questions. If the information exists, it has to be found.