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50 Pounds - Union Bank of Australia Limited
| Issuer | Union Bank of Australia Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1905 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | An oval portrait vignette of Queen Victoria occupies the upper left, while a central allegorical vignette presents Britannia seated with shield, spear, lion, and kangaroo — emblems uniting British and Australian identity. The composition is enclosed within ornate guilloche borders, with the bank title and promise-to-pay inscription distributed above and below the central design in bold letterpress. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in brown, the reverse is structured around an elaborate symmetrical guilloche rosette at centre, encircled by five circular heraldic crest medallions evenly distributed around the central motif. The denomination numeral '50' appears in large format in each corner, with intricate floral and geometric lathe-work filling the entire field; cancel punch holes are present, indicating a cancelled or specimen example. |
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| Comments |
The Union Bank of Australia Limited was incorporated in London in 1837 and operated as one of the major Anglo-Australian trading banks well into the twentieth century, ultimately absorbed into the ANZ Banking Group through a 1951 merger with the Bank of Australasia. High-denomination notes of this type — fifty pounds was a very substantial sum in 1905 — were rarely handled by ordinary customers and circulated almost exclusively between merchants, pastoralists, and the bank's own branches for interbank settlement.
Waterlow & Sons produced the plates for a number of Australian private bank issues during this period, and the engraving quality on Union Bank notes is generally among the finer examples of colonial-era commercial printing. Survivors are genuinely scarce; most were redeemed and pulped well before federation-era banking consolidation made these institutions obsolete.