Description and research notes
Front proof of the Bank of New Zealand 10 Shillings (Pick S231p1), printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., London, for the post-war re-engraved issue dated 1924–25. Perforated SPECIMEN through the lower margin and certified by PMG as Choice Uncirculated 63 Top Pop, this example shows the completed obverse design prior to overprinting and serial application.
The note features a finely engraved portrait of the Māori rangatira Tamati Waka Nene (1780–1871), leader of Ngāpuhi and an early ally of British settlement—one of the first indigenous statesmen ever depicted on a Commonwealth banknote. Surrounding the portrait are complex guilloché patterns and a two-tone lilac-and-ochre tint underprint demonstrating the peak of Bradbury Wilkinson’s late-Edwardian plate craftsmanship.
Front proofs such as this were retained in the printer’s reference archives and used to verify color registration, alignment, and micro-engraving before full production. The intact margins and deep relief impression make this piece an ideal teaching reference for plate-making and tint-stone layering techniques used by BWC during the interwar modernization of New Zealand’s private-issue currency. It stands as an educational artifact bridging colonial design tradition and the technical precision that would define later Reserve Bank series.