50 Pounds Australian and European Bank

The Australian and European Bank Limited was a short-lived colonial venture, incorporated in London and operating branches in New South Wales and Victoria. It collapsed in 1879 — a casualty of the same overextended colonial banking environment that would claim several larger institutions over the following decade. Notes issued right up to the final years of operation were never redeemed, which means surviving examples carry the additional burden of representing a failed institution rather than simply retired currency.

Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work on colonial private bank issues of this period is consistently fine, but that quality did little to reassure depositors when the balance sheet unraveled.