Catalog
1 Pound Bank of Australasia
| Issuer | Bank of Australasia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1850 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The note is framed by a fine guilloche border with ornamental corner rosettes. At upper centre, the circular arms of the Bank of Australasia — incorporating the legend BANK OF AUSTRALASIA INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER and dated 1835 — are flanked by two oval guilloche vignettes each bearing the denomination ONE. A handwritten promise-to-pay text in copperplate script reads across the centre field, with a rectangular black denomination panel at lower centre, and the geographic designation NEW ZEALAND in bold letterpress along the lower border. A diagonal SPECIMEN overprint appears twice across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE BANK OF AUSTRALASIA ONE ONE PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ONE POUND STERLING ON DEMAND HERE FOR THE BANK OF AUSTRALASIA NEW ZEALAND SPECIMEN |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Australasia was a British imperial institution chartered in London in 1835, operating branches across the Australian colonies under direct oversight from Threadneedle Street. Its notes were accordingly produced in London and shipped out — the colonial branches functioned as agencies, not autonomous issuing banks in any local sense. Charles Skipper & East were the house printer for several British-chartered colonial banks during this period, handling security work that the colonies had no domestic capacity to produce.
1850 places this note squarely in the pre-gold-rush economy of the Australian colonies, before the 1851 Ballarat and Bendigo finds transformed liquidity conditions almost overnight.