Description and research notes
The high-denomination anchor of the BNZ color series, this £5 Orange (Pick S192s) marked the transition from ornate Victorian engraving to stricter Edwardian geometry. Printed by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. in London, it features a deep orange duty tint and the familiar Māori figures and coastal vignette refined from the 1870 £1 Green.
Early printer’s approval copies carried A-prefix numbering and CANCELLED perforations for internal file reference. This specimen represents the principal catalogued type—distributed in minute numbers to official archives and correspondent banks. It bridges BNZ’s late-19th-century artistry with the early-20th-century drive for standardization.
In sequence, it sits between the [£1 Green (S191s)](https://1994.pl/collection/item/new-zealand-1870-bank-of-new-zealand-1-pound-green-s191s-specimen.html) and [£10 Brown (S193s)](https://1994.pl/collection/item/new-zealand-1895-bank-of-new-zealand-10-pounds-brown-s193s-specimen.html), completing the BNZ specimen trio of color and denomination that defined the pre-Reserve Bank era.