Description and research notes
Approval-stage photographic proof for the 50 Dollars traveller's cheque prepared for The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited during the 1965 Bradbury Wilkinson and Company design and approval sequence. Mounted on cardstock and dated 15 June 1965 in manuscript below the proof image, this piece records the revised 50 Dollars form produced after the March design submission and April review stage. Its date places it in the same corrected June approval cycle as the 10 Dollars design proof, which carried the approved submission direction for the series.
The proof reproduces the 50 Dollars design in monochrome, but its importance lies in the visible changes that separate it from the earlier 1 April 1965 50 Dollars photographic proof. The inscription "The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited" is carried across a distinctly light horizontal reserve panel, lifting the bank title out of the dense security background and giving the central field a cleaner visual hierarchy. This treatment makes the institutional name read with immediate clarity while preserving the same high-denomination structure, corner value tablets, C.B.C. Travellers' Cheque title panel, scripted amount line, Australia map motif, circular C.B.C. medallion, and drawer's signature area seen throughout the 50 Dollars design progression.
The single round control punch is one of the most important physical details on this proof. Photographic proofs of this type normally function as mounted review images, yet this 15 June 1965 proof carries a punch through the cheque image at the drawer's signature area. That treatment aligns it with the formal proof-room handling seen on the submitted colour design proofs and separates it from the earlier 1 April 1965 50 Dollars photographic proof, which records the first photographic review state. The punch therefore serves as a stage marker, showing that this June proof had moved beyond simple photographic review into the approval-stage handling of the corrected design.
The sequence is unusually clear. The 50 Dollars colour design proof was submitted on 23 March 1965 and was later marked with the review note referring to the 12 April 1965 letter. The 1 April 1965 photographic proof records the same denomination during the early review phase. The present 15 June 1965 photographic proof shows the revised 50 Dollars design brought forward in the June approval cycle, on the same date as the approved 10 Dollars design proof. It was not a record of a discarded March state, but a second-stage photographic proof made because the top denomination remained active within the corrected series development.
Within the surviving Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited 1965 traveller's cheque group, this proof is the pivotal top-denomination link. The March 20 Dollars and 50 Dollars submitted proofs establish the first formal design stage. The 31 March 20 Dollars photographic proof and 1 April 50 Dollars photographic proof record immediate proof-room review. This 15 June 1965 50 Dollars approval-stage photographic proof records the corrected high-value design in the same approval cycle as the 10 Dollars proof, tying the top denomination directly to the accepted June design direction and the July approval stage.
As a dated, mounted, punched photographic proof of the highest denomination, this piece is a discovery-level archival survivor. Its 15 June 1965 manuscript date, lighter bank-name reserve, single control punch, top-denomination role, and direct connection to the approved 10 Dollars proof make it one of the defining technical records in the Bradbury Wilkinson and Company approval trail for The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited's decimal-era traveller's cheque programme.