100 Pounds Bank of New Zealand

The Bank of New Zealand was a private trading bank when this note was issued — the Reserve Bank of New Zealand would not exist until 1934, meaning commercial banks like BNZ retained full note-issuing authority throughout the 1920s. A £100 denomination was purely a wholesale instrument, used for interbank settlements and large commercial transfers rather than retail trade. Few of these would have crossed a shop counter.

Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work for colonial and dominion banking clients was technically accomplished and consistent across decades of output. The S-prefix in the Pick reference indicates this is catalogued within the private/commercial bank series — distinct from later government-issued New Zealand currency.