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50 Pounds Colonial Bank of New Zealand
| Issuer | Colonial Bank of New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870-1889 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Central oval vignette engraved in intaglio presents an allegorical female figure seated between two sailors amid agricultural implements and a beehive, set against a pastoral landscape. Denomination circles bearing the £50 cipher appear at upper left and upper right, with the bank title arching across the top and intricate guilloche borders framing all four sides. The bearer promise inscription is rendered in copperplate script across the lower centre, with the issuing place DUNEDIN and a manuscript date line below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED BY ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1874 THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND FIFTY POUNDS FIFTY POUNDS ON DEMAND WE PROMISE TO PAY TO THE BEARER FIFTY POUNDS STERLING FOR THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND FIFTY THE COLONIAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND DUNEDIN Perkins Bacon & Co London |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank of New Zealand was a Dunedin-based institution that operated from 1874 until its absorption into the Bank of New Zealand in 1895, following a period of severe financial strain brought on by the collapse of land speculation in the late 1880s. Perkins, Bacon printed the plate — the same firm responsible for many colonial security documents across the British Empire, known for their siderographic transfer process that made plate duplication and forgery substantially harder than with lithographic alternatives.
A fifty-pound denomination in this period was not a retail instrument. It moved between businesses, squatters, and merchants. Surviving examples are exceptionally rare, partly because high-value notes were more likely to be cancelled and retained by the issuing branch than returned to general circulation.