1 Pound Bank of Australasia, 3 circles

The Bank of Australasia was a London-incorporated institution that operated branches across Australia and New Zealand from 1835 until its 1951 merger with the Union Bank to form ANZ. This note was produced by Perkins, Bacon & Petch — the same London firm responsible for the world's first adhesive postage stamp, the 1840 Penny Black — whose steel intaglio engraving techniques were specifically valued for their difficulty to counterfeit.

The 28-year date range reflects not prolific production but bureaucratic inertia: colonial-era private bank notes in Australia were progressively strangled by the Australian Notes Act of 1910, which gave the Commonwealth a monopoly on new issuance. Existing stocks could still circulate, explaining the long tail into the 1920s.