NZ 10 Shilling note 1st March 1920 issued by The Union Bank of Australia

Hello all knowledgeable good members I did send photos of my recent acquisition here before but haven't found out how many of these were printed.

I understand it's pretty rare and printed by Waterlow &Sons Ld,London Wall ,London.

It's well Circulated with creases and stains but solid and totally original condition.

Any input at all would be very much appreciated thankyou in advance 😀

We replied to your first post with this note.

It would be super if you could add the image of the back to the Union Bank of Australia 10 /- page

Hello and yes I have provided 4 photos of both the front and back of the note but here goes again 😀

Of the 2 pictures of the back posted I tried to clean up if somebody wants to add it to the page.

Here is the face and reverse of the notes, scaled to 400dpi and ‘straightened’ in photoshop.

I also adjusted the colour balance in the reverse pic to bring all of the pixels into the visible range - note this was not a a brighten / contrast alteration, so the colour accuracy should be unaltered.

@Gregmagilla

May I suggest that you upload these images in place of the existing image - this will give you credit for the image and its copyright.

And thanks for making this wonderful note available.

Thankyou I love this but I'm not tech savvy and have no idea how to put your photos on this post.

Anyone please advise if you like and thankyou so much in advance 😊 

Your note is very interesting and rare, despite its poor condition, its still worth around $500 - $1,000 and dates from the era of Trading Banks in New Zealand. Between 1840 and 1934, 7 private banks issued notes in New Zealand and most were Australian ones with a presence in NZ.

Your note is the Union Bank of Australia, which started issuing banknotes in NZ back in 1840 and this note is the 5th issue of 1905 - 1924 (They became uniform for all 7 banks in 1924 - to avoid confusion over the 10/- and £10 values). The 10/- denomination had only been phased in here between Aug 1916 (Bank of New Zealand) and this note (1920), as before 1915 most 10/- and £1 transactions were with gold sovereigns and halves, but WW1 paranoia and cost basically took the gold out of circulation and notes went from trading banks to national high currency.

Previous to 1916, most of the trading banks issued mostly £1 notes that were black or brown, and then blue £5 notes, brown £10, green £20 red or brown and some banks issued £50 (red or brown) and £100 notes  (bistre or olive). However uniformity only came in 1924. Before 1924 many notes still looked 1800s and yet were from like 1919 or whatever and were often hand signed. The colours often masked notes of the same size, a relatively common £1 was the same size as a rare £20 or £50 but only words and designs and occasionally colour separated them. It was a real wild west, you never knew which bank you would get notes from, and you had to go to that bank often to change the note into gold before 1914. After 1914 they had to be accepted by retailers.

All of a sudden in the 1916/20 period 10 bob notes appeared and people tried to pass them off as 10 pounders and thus the 10 bobs like this were made smaller and different coloured to end confusion (A 10 shilling note was worth 1/20 or 5% of a 10 pound one).

Because of Australia getting National Banknotes in 1913, this meant many Australian based banks like this one, could only issue their private banknotes in New Zealand and thus they were domiciled in Wellington by 1913. Australian money and capital may have made up the stock, but the note was only valid in New Zealand by 1920 and not Australia.