Catalog
10 Shillings Otago Banking Company
| Issuer | The Otago Banking Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851 |
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| Currency | Pound (1840-1967) |
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| Obverse description | Uniface note printed in blue on cream paper. The Scottish royal arms vignette is centred at the top, flanked by the bank title BANK OF OTAGO in bold letterpress. Below, the full corporate name THE OTAGO BANKING COMPANY is rendered in elaborate copperplate script, with two oval guilloche medallions bearing the denomination TEN SHILLINGS positioned at left and right. The promise-to-pay text, denomination TEN SHILLINGS STERLING, place of issue DUNEDIN, and signature boxes for Chairman and Manager occupy the lower portion, with blank fields for number and date. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANK OF OTAGO THE OTAGO BANKING COMPANY TEN SHILLINGS TEN SHILLINGS WE PROMISE TO PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND TEN SHILLINGS STERLING AT THEIR OFFICE HERE DUNEDIN BY ORDER OF THE DIRECTORS |
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| Comments |
The Otago Banking Company was a short-lived provincial institution, established in Dunedin during the early years of organised European settlement in Otago. It failed in 1852, barely a year after this note was issued, making surviving examples genuinely rare. The collapse was partly attributable to the chaotic credit conditions of a frontier settlement operating without any formal colonial banking regulation.
New Zealand provincial banknotes from this period are among the scarcest in the entire Pacific region. Most were redeemed or destroyed in the wind-up; few escaped.