Private Promissory Notes

Lot 2750    SESSION 9 - 4.30PM Wednesday 30 July    Private Promissory Notes

Estimate $250
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $240

ORMEROD & CO, Robe Town, South Australia, Ten shillings, currency note, circulation note, ink traces discernable, but uncertain number, date and an uncertain signature, no watermark, vignette of Australian arms with port scene, all within rectangular spiral frame, printed by Ferguson & Mitchell, 41 Collins St, Melb, stating on front 'We Promise to pay the Bearer the sum of Ten Shillings Sterling on demand Value received.' black on white, (type illustrated Vort Ronald..Shinplaster..p.75). Many paper folds, two corners missing one very severe, poor, and extremely rare.

Ex Noble Numismatics Sale 49 (lot 1630).

It also seems possible that these notes formed part of the need for a circulating note in the 1850s and 1860s. The port of Robe Town, in the southern part of South Australia was in the late 1850s an entry point for many Chinese after Victoria introduced a prohibitive entry tax to stem the flow of Asian migrants to the goldfields. In order to avoid the tax, ships from China dropped these migrants at Robe Town, and from there the Chinese began the long trek eastward to the goldfields of Ballarat, Mount Alexander etc. Ormerod and Co., a local firm in Robe produced ten shilling notes which only lasted a year, of which today only a few survive. George Omerod was born in 1822 at Rochdale in England and emigrated to Victoria in 1842. He later came to South Australia and in 1846 took up 87 square miles of land at Naracoorte, known as the Naracoorte run. The station was sold in 1848 and George Omerod commenced business at Robe as a Wool Buyer, General Merchant and shipping Agent. He died in 1872 at the age of 50 years.