Collection PL

New Zealand 1916-1920 - Bank of New Zealand £5 Red-Rose (Orange Lineage) with Serial Number Prefix Specimen (Pick S227s)

The 1916–1920 BNZ series belongs to the final decades of New Zealand’s private-bank note-issuing era before the establishment of the Reserve Bank in 1934. Internal audit and approval material from this production cycle was normally retained only for operational purposes and was seldom preserved once its function had ended. Surviving examples are exceptionally scarce. Read more →

New Zealand 1913 - Bank of New Zealand £5 Orange Multi-Serial Approval Specimen (Pick S192ms)

The design retains the canonical BNZ Victorian layout: Māori portrait figures at left, a coastal vignette symbolizing New Zealand’s maritime economy, and dense guilloche frameworks engraved to Bradbury Wilkinson’s late-19th-century standard. By 1913, however, the orange duty tint had been deepened and the geometry subtly regularized, reflecting the broader transition from ornate Victorian engraving toward the more disciplined Edwardian and early WWI-era printing style. Read more →

New Zealand 1895–1915 - Bank of New Zealand £5 Orange Specimen (Pick S192s)

The high-denomination anchor of the Bank of New Zealand color series, this five pounds orange specimen (Pick S192s) represents one of the most structurally complex and production-informative notes of New Zealand’s private banking era. Printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company, Limited, London, it embodies the transition from richly ornamental Victorian engraving toward the more controlled and symmetrical Edwardian framework that followed. The composition preserves the defining elements of the earlier series-paired Māori figures within oval medallions at left, a lower maritime vignette reflecting colonial trade identity, and a dense guilloche lattice enclosing the denomination-while introducing a more disciplined spatial hierarchy across the central obligation panel. Read more →

New Zealand 1870–1890 - Bank of New Zealand £1 Green Specimen (Pick S191s)

This £1 Green specimen marks a pivotal stage in New Zealand’s monetary development. During the late nineteenth century, the Bank of New Zealand operated within a privately issued currency system, where commercial banks produced their own notes backed by reserves and governed under colonial legislation. Bradbury Wilkinson introduced high-security engraving standards to this system, embedding British technical precision into a developing colonial economy. Read more →