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5 Pounds Colonial Bank of New Zealand
| Issuer | Colonial Bank of New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889-1895 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Pounds |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1874 THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF FIVE POUNDS STERLING AT THEIR OFFICE HERE DUNEDIN FOR THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND |
| Reverse description | A central vignette presents a grand classical building rendered in fine intaglio engraving, set within an elaborate guilloche border in blue. To the left and right, oval cameo portraits of a female figure face inward, each framed within intricate lathe-work medallions in mauve and pink respectively. The denomination FIVE appears in each corner, and the composition is printed in a tricolour scheme of blue, mauve, and pink against a white ground, with a perforated SPECIMEN cancellation visible at centre. |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank of New Zealand was a Dunedin-based institution that operated from 1874 until its absorption by the Bank of New Zealand in 1895 — a forced amalgamation driven by the severe colonial depression of the 1890s, which had badly damaged the Colonial Bank's loan portfolio, particularly its exposure to struggling pastoral and agricultural accounts. The BNZ itself required a government bailout shortly after, suggesting the merger solved rather less than its architects intended.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced the plates in London, a common arrangement for Australasian private banks of the period that lacked local security printing infrastructure. The date range of this series maps almost exactly onto the bank's final years of independent operation.