Description and research notes
This specimen represents a one pound note prepared for the Federal Bank of Australia, Limited and printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company in London during the bank’s short operational life between 1879 and 1903. It belongs to one of the most fragile and least documented chapters of Australia’s pre-Federation private banking era, when dozens of colonial banks issued their own paper currency under uneven regulation and extreme financial volatility.
The Federal Bank of Australia commenced operations in 1881 and expanded aggressively during the speculative land-boom years of the late nineteenth century. Its collapse during the catastrophic banking crisis of 1893 resulted in the rapid liquidation of assets and the withdrawal, redemption, and destruction of nearly all circulating notes. As a consequence, surviving material associated with the bank is almost entirely confined to printer’s proofs, archival specimens, and presentation examples retained outside Australia.
This note is a true specimen, not intended for circulation, and was produced as part of Bradbury, Wilkinson’s export engraving program for colonial banks. The design reflects late Victorian security printing conventions: a balanced bilateral layout with allegorical female vignettes, dense blue underprinting, and wide margins characteristic of early British-engraved export notes. At left, a young woman holding a lamb symbolizes prosperity and trust; at right, a classical female figure represents authority and stability. Together, these motifs conveyed reassurance to a colonial public deeply wary of newly founded financial institutions.
The specimen bears contemporary handwritten annotations, including a pencilled date reading “9 May 82,” which situates the piece directly within the bank’s earliest period of operation. Such markings strongly indicate use as an internal reference, presentation note, or approval example rather than a circulation surrogate. Annotated specimens of this type are especially important, as they document how banks and printers interacted during the establishment of new note issues.
Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company played a decisive role in shaping the visual and technical identity of Australian private banknotes during this period. By sourcing engraving and printing from London, institutions like the Federal Bank of Australia sought to project legitimacy, stability, and metropolitan authority in a market where public confidence was fragile and bank failures were common. The sophisticated tint stones, micro-ornamentation, and engraved portraiture used here far exceeded the capabilities of local printers.
Following the 1893 collapse, the Federal Bank of Australia ceased to exist as a functioning issuer, and its notes disappeared from circulation. The absence of any confirmed issued survivors underscores the documentary importance of specimen material as the sole physical evidence of the bank’s paper currency.
Graded PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated and recorded as the finest known example, this specimen stands as a unique surviving artifact of the Federal Bank of Australia’s brief and turbulent existence. Its significance lies not in denomination or grade alone, but in its role as a primary document of Australia’s private-banknote era, British export engraving practice, and the structural instability that ultimately led to the abandonment of privately issued colonial currency.
As such, this piece functions as a museum-grade anchor for the study of nineteenth-century Australian banking history and the transition toward centralized national currency following Federation.