Catalog
1 Pound
| Issuer | Commercial Banking Company of Sydney |
|---|---|
| Year | ND (1910) |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Green-tinted note with a classical female allegorical vignette at left and a portrait of a male figure at right within oval frames. The issuer's title "THE COMMERCIAL BANKING COMPANY OF SYDNEY LIMITED" is set across the top, with "ONE POUND STERLING" in bold central lettering and guilloche border work framing the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE COMMERCIAL BANKING COMPANY OF SYDNEY LIMITED ONE POUND STERLING ONE POUND ONE |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney was one of Australia's oldest private banks, founded in 1834, and remained independent until its absorption into the National Australia Bank group in 1982. Notes of this period occupy an interesting transitional moment: the Australian Notes Act of 1910 was passed that same year, establishing the Commonwealth government's monopoly over banknote issuance and effectively rendering all private bank currency illegal tender — a process that unfolded over the following years as redemption deadlines were enforced.
Any note dated or assignable to 1910 from a private issuer was operating on borrowed time. Surviving examples from the final years of private issue are scarcer than earlier dated notes from the same banks, largely because fewer were printed and most were surrendered for redemption rather than retained.