5 Shillings - George V

Australia's first Commonwealth note issue — the series that replaced the private bank circulation following the Australian Notes Act of 1910 — didn't include a 5 Shilling denomination at the outset. This note was added in 1916, driven largely by the wartime coin shortage that was draining silver from circulation across the British Empire. The 5 Shilling piece filled the gap left by the hoarded florin and crown coinage.

T. S. Harrison printed the series entirely in Melbourne, making Australia one of the few countries at the time producing its own government paper domestically from the start. Pick #1 is the first assigned reference in the Australian Commonwealth sequence — a designation that overstates its rarity somewhat, as many examples survived in collector hands from early on.