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10 Shillings
| Issuer | Commonwealth of Australia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1913 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Shillings (½) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Printed in purple, red, and multicolour, the obverse centres on the statutory promise-to-pay text reading "Promises to pay the Bearer TEN SHILLINGS in gold coin on Demand" over the signature of the Commonwealth Treasurer. The Commonwealth coat of arms appears as a vignette to the left, with the denomination numeral to the right, the whole surrounded by intricate guilloche border panels repeating "10 SHILLINGS" in each corner. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 10 10 SHILLINGS 10 SHILLINGS 10 TEN 10 10 TEN 10 10 SHILLINGS 10 SHILLINGS 10 |
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| Comments |
Australia's first federally issued banknotes entered circulation in 1913, replacing the notes of private trading banks whose right to issue currency was extinguished by the Australian Notes Act 1910. The political fight behind that legislation was considerable — private banks resisted hard, and the Commonwealth's decision to absorb note issuance was as much about revenue as it was about monetary control. The new government collected the seigniorage profit that had previously flowed to commercial institutions.
Thomas Sterry Harrison, the first Commonwealth Note Printer, produced this series entirely in Melbourne — a deliberate assertion of domestic printing capability at a time when most colonial currency had been printed in London. The 1913 date on P#1A notes places them in the first year of issue, before the minor plate revisions that distinguish later printings in the series.