Private Bank Issues

Lot 1521       Private Bank Issues

Estimate $750
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $800

BANK OF AUSTRALASIA, type without city name, one pound altered to five pounds, date not discernable, (18 printed) but an issue of period 1850-1860, No. 64198, hand signed by uncertain Manager and not entered, note altered from one pound to five pounds by removing ONE in oval either side of vignette and replacing with hand drawn Ã…â€Å‣5 and a FIVE replacing ONE in lower ornamental frame, printed on unwatermarked paper (?), with imprint on centre of bottom frame, 'Perkins Bacon & Co, London Patent Hardened Steel Plate' vignette of Royal Arms in centre, all within rectangular spiral border, on back Bank of Australasia arms, black/green on white, (Vort-Ronald Type One (b) but printed in colour on back (p.60), and compare illustrations fig.56 and 57, also for specimen proof of Ã…â€Å‣5 note copied see Spink sale Perkins Bacon Archive lot 160 illustrated but this with FIVE in oval and lot 152 for Ã…â€Å‣5 in caligraphy). Heavily frayed edge with some missing frame, also many small holes, and extensive staining in area of original alterations, otherwise poor, as a forgery probably unique, and very rare for a one pound note from this bank at this time.

The forger has been reasonably successful for the alterations of the One to Five in the ornamental frame, and the removal of the One in the oval frame and its replacement with a Å“5. But the alteration is less successful in the replacing of the ONE POUND in the text to FIVE POUND as the reading lacks the final S of POUNDS. Consequently this note is easily detected as a forgery. Fortunately for the forger the bank utilised a frame that was very similar to the One Pound note, although the original series of pound notes incorporated a city of issue within the frame. The staining on the note comes as a consequence of the alteration and was probably dirtied as a deliberate act to give it a circulated look and to hide the alterations.