1 Pound Bank of Otago Limited

The Bank of Otago was founded in Dunedin in 1863, riding the Otago gold rush that had transformed the South Island's economic weight within the young colony. Perkins Bacon — by then the dominant security printer for colonial issues worldwide — supplied notes that were designed to project institutional credibility in a region where bank failures were a real and recent memory.

The bank was absorbed by the Bank of New Zealand in 1874, which effectively ended new issuances well before the nominal series end date. Notes bearing later dates within the stated range are rarely encountered.