Australian one-pound note

One Pound

(Australia)
Value	1 Australian pounds
Width	156 mm
Height	81 mm
Security features	Thread Watermark
Paper type	Cotton
Years of printing	1910–1965
Obverse
Design date	1913[nb 1]
Reverse
Design date	1913

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.^[2] The first banknotes issued were superscribed notes purchased from 15 banks across Australia and printed with Australian Note and were payable in gold.

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.^[3]

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)

See also

• Banknotes of the Australian pound

Footnotes

1. Cuhaj, 2010, p. 67.
2. Ian W. Pitt, ed. (2000). Renniks Australian Coin and Banknote Values (19th ed.). Chippendale, N.S.W.: Renniks Publications. p. 149. ISBN 0-9585574-4-6.
3. National Library finds Australia's first pound note, thought to be lost for nearly 80 years, Jordan Hayne, ABC News Online]], 5 May 2015

1. The pictured note is part of the 1913 Second Issue (1913–18). Based on the authorizing signatures (C.J. Cerutti and J.R. Collins) the note was issued in 1918.^[1]

References

• Cuhaj, George S., ed. (2010). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money General Issues (1368–1960) (13 ed.). Krause. ISBN 978-1-4402-1293-2.
• Ian W. Pitt, ed. (2000). Renniks Australian Coin and Banknote Values (19th ed.). Chippendale, N.S.W.: Renniks Publications. ISBN 0-9585574-4-6.