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1 Pound Bank of Adelaide
| Issuer | Bank of Adelaide |
|---|---|
| Year | 1892-1893 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a laureate female figure, classically draped and flanked by foliage, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The bank title 'THE BANK OF ADELAIDE' appears in bold letterpress across a decorated panel below the vignette, with the promise-to-pay text and denomination 'ONE POUND STERLING' inscribed in script within the body of the note. Serial numbers are printed in black at left and right, with ornate guilloche cornerpieces bearing the numeral '1' at each corner. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Tricolour design in blue, green, and brown, with a central oval vignette of the Bank of Adelaide's imposing classical-style headquarters building, engraved in brown intaglio with horse-drawn vehicles visible at street level. The bank title 'THE BANK OF ADELAIDE' is inscribed across the top in a decorative panel, and the denomination 'ONE POUND' appears in a curved cartouche at the base. The background fields to the left and right are filled with elaborate guilloche lacework in blue and green, with the word 'ONE' and the numeral '1' repeated in the corner medallions. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Adelaide was a relatively late entrant among South Australian private banks, established in 1865 and operating in a colony that had already seen several note-issuing institutions come and go. By the time this note was printed, the Australian banking system was approaching the catastrophic crisis of 1893, when a cascade of bank failures across the colonies forced temporary suspensions, including the Bank of Adelaide itself in May of that year — meaning notes dated 1893 may have circulated only briefly before the suspension interrupted normal business.
Bradbury Wilkinson's security printing was considered among the most technically rigorous available to colonial issuers at the time.