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1 Pound Bank of Australasia, 5 circles, straight border
| Issuer | Bank of Australasia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1932 |
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| Printer | Thomas De La Rue & Company, London, United Kingdom |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of two seated allegorical women set within an ornate intaglio-engraved frame, printed in purple on white paper; five guilloche medallions bearing the denomination numeral ONE are arranged across the note — two at upper left and right, one at lower left and lower right, and one at upper centre flanking the vignette. The bank title in stylised script runs across the upper portion, with the place of issue WELLINGTON and promise-to-pay text in letterpress across the centre; the words NEW ZEALAND appear vertically in the left and right margins, and NEW ZEALAND is also inscribed in bold capitals along the lower border. The illustrated example is a Specimen, with zeroed serial numbers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE BANK OF AUSTRALASIA INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER 1835 WELLINGTON PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND ONE POUND IN WELLINGTON ONE FOR THE BANK OF AUSTRALASIA NEW ZEALAND ONE NEW ZEALAND |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Australasia was one of two major British-chartered banks operating in Australia — the other being the Union Bank — and both were eventually absorbed into the ANZ in 1951. By 1932, Australian private banknotes were already an anachronism; the Commonwealth Bank had held the monopoly on new note issuance since 1910, meaning any Bank of Australasia pound note still in circulation by this date was a legacy instrument grandfathered under transitional arrangements, not freshly authorized currency.
De La Rue's involvement is unsurprising given the bank's London charter and board. The "5 circles" designation in the catalog distinguishes this plate variant from earlier border treatments in the same series — a printer's detail, not a policy change.