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20 Pounds Commercial Bank of New Zealand Ltd.
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of New Zealand Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1865-1866 |
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| Printer | Perkins, Bacon & Petch (Perkins, Bacon and Co.), United Kingdom (1820-1935) |
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| Obverse description | The bank title 'The Commercial Bank of New Zealand Limited' is inscribed in script across the upper portion, below the heading 'INCORPORATED', with the denomination numeral '20' appearing at left and right flanking a central heraldic arms vignette with supporters. The text 'PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND TWENTY POUNDS, value rec'd, here and at Dunedin' is set in letterpress across the centre, with the place and date 'NAPIER 2nd January 1865' printed below the vignette. The lower border carries the legend 'BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY', with signature lines for Entd., Acct., and Chief Manager at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED The Commercial Bank of New Zealand Limited No. 1 NAPIER 2nd January 1865 PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND TWENTY POUNDS value rec'd here and at Dunedin TWENTY For the Directors & Proprietors of the Commercial Bank of New Zealand Limited BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of New Zealand Limited was founded in London in 1866 and largely operated as a British colonial venture managing pastoral and mercantile accounts — a £20 denomination was never a retail instrument. Notes of this value moved between stations, merchant houses, and the bank's own branches, not through ordinary hands.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the dominant security printers for colonial currency throughout the mid-Victorian period, and their siderographic process — transferring engraved designs via a hardened steel roller — made counterfeiting genuinely difficult at a time when New Zealand had no central authority to police it. The bank itself was wound up in 1893 following insolvency, and surviving notes from the earliest issue years are rare simply because so few were printed and fewer still survived the receivership.