Value 1 Australian pounds Height 81 mm Paper type Cotton | Width 156 mm Security features Thread Watermark Years of printing 1910–1965 | |
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The one pound note was the most prevalent bankote in circulation with the pound series, with the last series of 1953–66 having 1,066 million banknotes printed. The first banknotes issued were superscribed notes purchased from 15 banks across Australia and printed with Australian Note and were payable in gold.
Contents
Historic £1 note
In May 2015, the National Library of Australia announced that it had discovered the first £1 banknote printed by the Commonwealth of Australia, among a collection of specimen banknotes. This uncirculated Australian Pound (£1) note, with the serial number (red-ink) P000001, was the first piece of currency to carry the Coat of Arms of Australia, and carries the imprinted signatures of George Allen (Secretary of the Treasury; 1 January 1901 – 13 March 1916) and James Collins (Assistant Secretary, later Secretary; 14 March 1916 – 26 June 1926). Soon after its production in 1913, it was presented to the then Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, who retained it until 1927 when he gave it to then prime minister Stanley Bruce for donation to the Parliamentary Library. At that time, the National Library was part of the Parliamentary Library. There is a contemporaneous record in the National Archives of the accession of the note into the national collection. The curator of the collection said that the note had been placed it into a conservation sleeve sometime in the past 30 years, and that notes with similar rarity and provenance and age to this note, have been sold for over A$1m.
Signature combinations
Collins and Allen (1913, 1914)
Cerutty and James Collins (1918)
Miller and James Collins (1923)
Kell and James Collins (1926)
Kell and James Heathershaw (1927)
Ernest Riddle and James Heathershaw (1927)
Ernest Riddle and Sheehan (1932)
Sheehan and McFarlane (1938)
Armitage and McFarlane (1942)
H.C. Coombs and George Watt (1949)
H.C. Coombs and Wilson (1952)