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50 Pounds National Bank of New Zealand Limited
| Issuer | National Bank of New Zealand Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1921 |
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| Currency | Pound (1840-1967) |
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| Obverse description | The Royal Arms vignette, engraved in fine intaglio, is positioned at the upper centre, flanked by a lion and a unicorn as supporters, with the shield bearing the quartered coat of arms surmounted by a crown. Denomination counters reading '£50' appear in guilloche ovals at the upper left and right corners, with circular bank monogram medallions in the lateral borders. The bearer promise text is set within a decorative guilloche panel at centre, with the word 'FIFTY' in a framed cartouche at the lower centre, and the branch designation 'Christchurch' inscribed in script at mid-left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE NATIONAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND LIMITED INCORPORATED UNDER THE COMPANIES ACTS AND THE NEW ZEALAND ACT 1. 1873 WELLINGTON WE PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND FIFTY POUNDS STERLING FOR THE NATIONAL BANK OF NEW ZEALAND LIMITED FIFTY |
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| Comments |
The National Bank of New Zealand Limited was a privately chartered London-incorporated bank, not a government institution, which is why its notes carry no Reserve Bank authority — New Zealand's central bank wasn't established until 1934. During the 1916–1921 window, the bank operated under the Banking Act of 1908, which permitted trading banks to issue their own currency, a privilege that would steadily erode through the 1930s.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch had been producing security printing for colonial banks and governments since the early nineteenth century, their intaglio work remaining the standard for fraud resistance in Australasian banking paper well into the interwar period. At the fifty-pound level, circulation would have been almost entirely interbank and mercantile — few private individuals ever handled one.