20 Pounds Bank of New Zealand

The Bank of New Zealand operated as a private trading bank during this period — not a central bank — yet its notes circulated as everyday currency throughout New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. The £20 denomination was rarely seen in ordinary trade; it functioned almost entirely in mercantile and interbank settlements, which is precisely why surviving examples from this series are so uncommon. High-value notes of this type were typically cancelled and destroyed after single-use transactions rather than re-entering circulation.

Bradbury Wilkinson printed the entire series from their New Malden works in Surrey, and their engraving quality on colonial banking contracts of this period was consistently among the finest available to Southern Hemisphere issuers.