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20 Pounds Colonial Bank of New Zealand
| Issuer | Colonial Bank of New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870-1889 |
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| Currency | Pound (1840-1967) |
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| Obverse description | Central allegorical vignette at upper centre presents a seated female figure flanked by agricultural and pastoral symbols — a plough, wheat sheaf, and beehive — with a second figure blowing a horn at left, engraved in fine intaglio style typical of Perkins Bacon work. The bank title THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND arches across the upper register, below the inscription INCORPORATED BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1874, with denomination medallions bearing £20 at the upper corners and TWENTY POUNDS repeated vertically along both lateral borders. The lower portion carries a manuscript-style promise-to-pay clause in italic letterpress, with a printed place name INVERCARGILL and a TWENTY panel in a guilloche cartouche at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1874 THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND TWENTY POUNDS TWENTY POUNDS ON DEMAND WE PROMISE TO PAY TO THE BEARER TWENTY POUNDS STERLING FOR THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND TWENTY THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank of New Zealand was founded in 1874 and operated until 1895, when it was absorbed by the Bank of New Zealand following a liquidity crisis that shook public confidence in several of the colony's private banks simultaneously. The £20 denomination was the largest in the Colonial Bank's issued range — a face value that placed it firmly in commercial and pastoral use rather than everyday retail circulation, which means surviving examples with evidence of actual handling are genuinely uncommon.
Perkins, Bacon printed the plates using their steel intaglio process, the same technology they applied to postage stamps of the period. The security detail in the engraving is correspondingly fine.