5 Pounds Bank of New Zealand, Without text on back

The Bank of New Zealand was a private commercial bank, not a central bank, and issued its own notes under authority granted by its founding legislation — a situation that persisted until the Reserve Bank of New Zealand took over note issuance in 1934. The "Without text on back" designation distinguishes this from later printings of the same Bradbury Wilkinson plate, which received an overprinted advisory on the reverse during the early 1920s revision cycle.

Bradbury Wilkinson's work for colonial and dominion banks was extensive in this period, and the BNZ relationship stretched back decades. Five-pound notes saw genuine commercial use in New Zealand's farming and wool trade settlement cycles, which means heavily worn survivors are common — intact high-denomination examples from this window are not.