10 Pounds

The Bank of New South Wales was a private trading bank, not a central authority — it issued its own notes under the right granted to Australian banks before the Commonwealth Bank Act of 1911 effectively ended private note issue by imposing a prohibitive ten-percent tax on such circulation. This note predates that legislation by a thread, placing it among the last generation of privately issued Australian banknotes.

Ten-pound denominations from this period were working instruments of commerce, not retail currency — used for interbank settlement and large mercantile transactions. Survival rates are accordingly poor; high-value notes were redeemed, cancelled, and destroyed with far greater efficiency than lower denominations.