100 Pounds

The National Bank of Australasia was a private trading bank, not a central authority, and its right to issue notes was a commercial privilege that the Commonwealth government was actively working to abolish when this note was printed. The Australian Notes Act of 1910 — the same year this note was issued — transferred the monopoly on note issuance to the Commonwealth Treasury, effectively ending the era of private bank currency in Australia. Notes already in circulation were progressively withdrawn rather than abruptly demonetized.

At the £100 denomination, this was never a note for ordinary transactions. High-value private bank issues of this period survive in disproportionately low numbers precisely because they moved between institutions rather than hands, and cancellation upon retirement was thorough.