New Zealand 1905–1916 — Bank of New Zealand £1 Red Cancelled Specimen with Serial Number Prefix E300001–E400000 (Pick S212bs)
1905 • Specimen with Serial Number Prefix • 1 Pound • Raw (Serial-numbered Specimen, wide selvage) • Held
New Zealand 1905–1916 Bank of New Zealand £1 Red Pick S212bs, serial prefix E300001–E400000, perforated SPECIMEN, Bradbury Wilkinson & Co.
At a glance
Country: New Zealand
Year: 1905
Denomination: 1 Pound
Type: Specimen with Serial Number Prefix
Grade: Raw (Serial-numbered Specimen, wide selvage)
Status: Held
Tags: Specimen; 1 Pound; Red; BNZ Color Lineage; Serial-Prefix Variety; E-prefix; Bradbury Wilkinson; BWC; Pick S212bs; Bank of New Zealand; Private Banknote Era; Pre-Reserve Bank; Wartime Production; Prefix Block Sequence; Māori Portrait Series; Security Printing History; New Zealand; 1905; 1916; 1905–1916; Museum Grade; R8 Extremely Rare
Description and research notes
Numbered specimen from the terminal E300001–E400000 block of the BNZ £1 Red (Pick S212bs), printed by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co., London. Perforated SPECIMEN across the signature panel and preserved with wide selvage, this pull represents the final and rarest stage of BNZ £1 Red archival production.
The E-prefix rollover marks a distinct late-WWI production phase involving plate recalibration and alphabetic reset within Bradbury Wilkinson’s numbering system. These terminal specimens were produced in very small quantities and almost entirely destroyed during later archival reduction.
As the final documented prefix block of the BNZ £1 Red series, this specimen represents the end of New Zealand’s private-banknote era and is properly classified as R8 Extremely Rare.
