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5 Pounds Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd.
| Issuer | Commercial Bank of Australia Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1916 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#S272 |
| Obverse description | Central vignette of a seated allegorical female figure holding a caduceus, with a globe at her side, set within an oval frame at upper centre. The bank title 'The Commercial Bank of Australia Limited' arches across the top in bold script lettering, with the denomination 'Five' repeated at upper left and right corners, and a large intaglio 'FIVE POUNDS' guilloche underprint dominating the lower half. 'NEW ZEALAND' appears vertically in the left and right margins, with the promise-to-pay text and the place of issue 'Wellington' rendered in script across the centre, alongside a £5 cartouche at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | FIVE FIVE THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF FIVE POUNDS HERE VALUE RECEIVED WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND NEW ZEALAND THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of Australia was one of the few Australian private banks to survive the catastrophic bank crashes of 1893 relatively intact, which gave it the institutional confidence to continue issuing its own notes well into the twentieth century. Private banknote issue in Australia was not abolished until the Australian Notes Act of 1910, which granted the Commonwealth a monopoly — but existing private notes were permitted to remain in circulation until redeemed, creating a transitional period during which state-issued and private notes circulated simultaneously.
Sands and McDougall were primarily a Melbourne stationery and printing firm, not a specialist security printer, which makes their banknote output for Australian private banks during this window genuinely unusual. The 1914–1916 date range places this note squarely in wartime, when gold hoarding and currency anxiety made high-denomination private paper increasingly awkward to pass.