Description and research notes
Specimen traveller’s cheque for £2 issued by the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, Limited. Printed in green with an allegorical vignette depicting a child with fleece, symbolizing prosperity, trade, and trust — central ideals in Australian colonial iconography.
Traveller’s cheques were part of a major postwar shift in how Australians accessed funds overseas. The CBC of Sydney, one of the country’s oldest and most respected institutions, offered these instruments to business travellers and emigrants, ensuring international liquidity in an era before electronic payments. Each cheque carried intricate guilloche patterns and serialized numbering to prevent forgery.
This piece is perforated SPECIMEN with zero serials (No. S00.000) and bears an archival pencil notation in the margin, confirming its role as a retained printer’s or bank approval sample. As physical evidence of an otherwise ephemeral product, it illustrates mid-century Australian banking innovation and design aesthetics at a time when local banks were expanding globally.