Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pounds Bank of New Zealand
| Issuer | Bank of New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | At right, an oval portrait vignette of Maori King Tawhiao in traditional dress with facial moko; at left, a standing allegorical female figure beside a large denomination numeral '50' in guilloché underprint. The centre carries the promise-to-pay text and date 'Wellington, 1st day of October 1929' in letterpress, with '£50' corner numerals at all four angles and a large latent 'FIFTY' overprint across the lower field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | UNIFORM ISSUE |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Bank of New Zealand was a private trading bank, not a central bank — its right to issue notes derived from its founding legislation of 1861, and by 1929 it remained one of the few private institutions in the British Empire still exercising that privilege at scale. The £50 denomination was never a note for everyday commerce. It moved between businesses, lawyers, and financial institutions, and saw proportionally little handling relative to lower values.
Bradbury Wilkinson printed the entire BNZ series from their New Malden works, and their intaglio security standards were among the tightest available to colonial banks at the time. New Zealand's Reserve Bank Act of 1933 finally ended private note issue in the country, making all surviving BNZ notes from this period — particularly high denominations — casualties of a deliberately closed chapter.