10 Shillings

Pick 25 spans one of the more turbulent periods in Australian monetary history, running from the eve of the Second World War through postwar reconstruction. During the war years, the Commonwealth Bank operated under considerably expanded government powers, and the note-issuing function became entangled with wartime financial controls in ways that left their mark on production volumes and release patterns across the series.

Four signature combinations appear on this type — Sheehan/McFarlane through Coombs/Wilson — reflecting genuine institutional turnover at the top of the Bank. The Coombs/Watt pairing is the scarcest of the four, commanding a meaningful premium over the other combinations in equivalent grades.