5 Pounds National Bank of New Zealand Limited

The National Bank of New Zealand Limited was a London-incorporated institution, not a colonial government bank — a distinction that mattered enormously in the 1870s, when public confidence in private note issuers was fragile and several New Zealand trading banks had already failed. Perkins, Bacon & Co. were the natural choice for a bank seeking to project credibility: their reputation for intaglio security work was built on decades of producing postage stamps and banknotes across the empire.

New Zealand's Banking Act of 1867 had imposed strict requirements on private note circulation, and the window for this series closed when the government progressively tightened restrictions through the late 1870s. Few examples from this issuer survive in any grade.