20 Pounds

The Union Bank of Australia was absorbed into the ANZ group in 1951, but this note predates that merger by four decades — issued during the period when Australian private banks still printed their own currency, before the Commonwealth Bank consolidated note issue under the 1910 Australian Notes Act. That Act effectively made private banknotes redundant, and Union Bank notes from this transitional period were quickly withdrawn from use.

Perkins Bacon had supplied engraved banknote work to colonial and dominion banks throughout the nineteenth century, and their plate work for Union Bank was among the last commissions before Australian note production increasingly shifted to government-controlled channels. High denominations like this £20 rarely left bank vaults during normal commerce.