Catalog
100 Pounds
| Issuer | Bank of Australasia |
|---|---|
| Year | ND (1910) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette at top displays two allegorical female figures in intaglio engraving, flanking a pastoral scene, with the bank title in ornate script above and the legend "INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER, 1835" below. The promise-to-pay text in copperplate script reads "One Hundred Pounds Sterling" with the branch location noted. Lower left bears a guilloche-framed "One Hundred" panel; the Manager signature line appears at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#A85a - Melbourne |
| Comments |
The Bank of Australasia was a British-chartered institution headquartered in London, not an Australian central bank — a distinction that matters here. Perkins Bacon had a long relationship with the bank, supplying engraved notes from London throughout the colonial and early Federation periods. This £100 note, issued around 1910, would have been used almost exclusively for interbank settlement and large commercial transfers; retail customers rarely if ever handled denominations of this size.
The bank was absorbed into the Union Bank of Australia in 1951, after which remaining unissued stock was withdrawn. High-denomination survivor notes from this series are exceptionally rare in any condition.