Description and research notes
Photographic proof for the 20 Dollars traveller's cheque prepared for The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited during the 1965 Bradbury Wilkinson and Company design and approval sequence. Dated 31 March 1965 in manuscript below the proof image and preserved mounted on cardstock, this piece records the earliest known photographic review stage for the 20 Dollars denomination, appearing only eight days after the 23 March 1965 submitted design proof of the same value.
The proof reproduces the 20 Dollars design in monochrome, allowing the engraved structure, text hierarchy, border density, central Australia map motif, and signature placement to be examined without the distraction of full colour. In this form, the design reveals the technical skeleton of the March submission: the broad denomination tablets, the C.B.C. Travellers' Cheque title panel, the central bank name, the scripted amount line, the printed facsimile signature area, and the fine security underprint carrying repeated banking text across the field.
Its position in the surviving approval trail is especially important. The related 20 Dollars colour design proof was submitted on 23 March 1965 and carries the left-margin review annotation referring to the 12 April 1965 letter. This photographic proof, dated 31 March 1965, shows that the denomination was already being examined within the printer's review process before the April correspondence stage. It is therefore one of the earliest surviving technical records of the 20 Dollars design, standing between the submitted proof and the later sequence of revision evidence preserved across the companion 50 Dollars photographic proofs.
The cardstock mounting and grading label identify the piece as a photographic proof rather than a colour specimen proof. Its value lies in the way it isolates the engraved design and preserves the proof-room review state of the 20 Dollars denomination. The image shows the full cheque design with its central security field, Australia map device, scripted payable line, and placement guides for operational cheque use, documenting how Bradbury Wilkinson and Company evaluated the composition before the design direction moved forward into later revision stages.
Within the broader Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited 1965 traveller's cheque group, this 20 Dollars photographic proof forms a key early link in the documented approval sequence. The March 20 Dollars and 50 Dollars submitted proofs record the first formal design stage, this 31 March proof records immediate photographic review, the 50 Dollars photographic proofs carry the sequence into June, and the approved 10 Dollars proof of 15 June 1965 anchors the accepted design direction. Together, these pieces preserve a rare Bradbury Wilkinson proof-room trail for an Australian bank at the threshold of decimal currency.
As a dated, mounted photographic proof connected directly to the March submission and April review trail, this 20 Dollars piece is a discovery-level archival survivor. Its role is central to understanding the development of The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited's 1965 traveller's cheque series, preserving the denomination at a precise technical review point within one of the most revealing known Australian traveller's cheque approval sequences.