Catalog
5 Pounds
| Issuer | Australian Bank of Commerce Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | ND (1910) |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Horizontal note with an oval landscape vignette at top centre showing a harbour scene with trees and vessels. The bank title arcs across the upper field in bold letterpress, with "NEW SOUTH WALES" and "SYDNEY" inscribed vertically on borders. Guilloche cornerpieces bear the numeral 5, and the promise-to-pay legend with "FIVE POUNDS Sterling" occupies the central panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE AUSTRALIAN BANK OF COMMERCE LIMITED NEW SOUTH WALES SYDNEY Sydney 1st Jany 1910 I Promise to Pay the Bearer on Demand FIVE POUNDS Sterling For The Australian Bank of Commerce Limited Five Pounds Entr'd Pro Manager |
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| Comments |
The Australian Bank of Commerce Limited had an exceptionally short life — formed in 1910 through the merger of the Bank of Queensland and the London Bank of Australia, it was absorbed into the Bank of Australasia within the same year. This note belongs to that narrow window, which makes it one of the rarest issues in the entire catalogue of Australian private banking.
By 1910, private banknote issue in Australia was already in terminal decline, squeezed out by Commonwealth notes legislation. A bank that existed for only months, issuing notes under regulations that were already obsolete, left almost nothing behind.