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The First Commonwealth Banknote

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The First Commonwealth Banknote Announcing the Auction of the first commonwealth banknote 23 march 2006 hotel intercontinental sydney australia NOBLE NUMISMATICS PTY LTD The first Commonwealth banknote Foreword We are immensely pleased to be offering Australia’s first Commonwealth banknote, Ten Shillings M000001, at our forthcoming auction 22-24 March 2006 in Sydney. The offering is unprecedented in Australian numismatic auction history and with a pre-sale estimate of $1.2 million the note is by far the most valuable of any Australian numismatic object offered at auction. For these reasons we decided to produce this special booklet in addition to our usual catalogue to explore and disseminate the history and importance of the note. For information on viewing the note or to arrange a confidential consultation please refer to the details on page 8. Thanking you for your attention, Jim Noble (Managing Director) ‘The time has arrived’ The origins of the first Commonwealth note issue can be found consultation with the banks raised unequivocal opposition. in the Australian Constitution, enacted at Westminster in 1900. It was the Labor Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, who revived Section 51 (xii) granted parliament the power to legislate with the concept in a policy speech at Gympie, Queensland on 30 respect to ‘currency, coinage and legal tender’. March 1909 and reported in The Argus the following day. In his address Fisher declared ‘The time has arrived when the Support for Commonwealth Commonwealth should have a note issue of its own.’ paper currency began soon after federation. The existing To Fisher it was clear the young Commonwealth required a system of private bank and stable, unified federal paper currency to facilitate its economic Queensland Government growth. issues was perceived as detrimental for a variety of reasons, including its impediment to the free NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, NLA.PIC-AN 23302975 LIBRARY NATIONAL flow of commerce due to cross-border exchange Rt Hon Andrew Fisher c.1910 costs. Additionally, the banking crisis of 1902-3 saw many banks close their doors with a resultant depreciatory effect on paper. A bill proposed ‘Wildcat’ money − a Confederate States of America fifty dollars in 1907 with the view to authorising a Commonwealth issue of notes ‘payable on demand’ was dropped after confidential The first Commonwealth banknote 2 To be offered at auction 23 March 2006 Early resistance Labor’s victory in the election of 1910 delivered to the party a majority in both houses of Parliament and saw Australia’s (and the world’s) first majority federal Labor government. Fisher’s previous statement of policy was brought to action in the form of the Australian Notes Bill, which was read and debated in parliament following the election. Opponents were fuelled partly by the common perception of Labor’s naivety in matters of finance. An editorial in The Argus on 20 July 1910 alleged ‘whenever Governments have issued paper money they have never known where to stop, and disaster has followed in every case’ and described the ‘thirst for legal tender notes’ as ‘alcoholism in the body politic’. The bad paper money of wild-cat republics in Spanish-America, the Confederate States One pound superscribed on Bank of Victoria form of America and the Romanov monarchy were all cited as historic precedents. Commonwealth’s unpreparedness to effectively circulate a currency issue meant proclamation was deferred until 11 July 1911. Australian Notes Act Despite opposition, the Australian Notes Act was proclaimed The Superscribed issues on 1 November 1910. The act banned state-issue currency The first ‘Australian notes’ circulated on 1 December and authorised the Treasury to issue Australian notes in 1910 were not original designs but rather Government denominations of 10s, £1, £5, £10 and any other multiple of superscriptions printed on private bank forms. The ten pounds. An obligation to hold a gold reserve of not less denominations of sixteen different private banking institutions than one fourth of the total value of issued notes was put upon were used resulting in dozens of varieties. the Treasury. Then, in order to force out existing currency, the Bank Notes Tax Act was assented on 10 October 1910 and As an aside, it is a curiosity that the Government relied heavily on stipulated a tax of ten percent per annum on private bank notes private banks to circulate its own legal tender issue, and in doing not redeemed. The strength of the measure coupled with the so sought to destroy the banks’ existing currency. The Empire’s first paper ten shillings Adding to this note’s legend is its status as the first paper ten shillings to be produced by authority within the British Empire (the Bank of England’s first paper ten shillings was issued in 1928). Where banknotes were hitherto the domain of society’s wealthy, the ten shillings denomination, approximate to an anverage day’s wages, greatly expanded potential circulation. Opposition to the new ‘egalitarian’ notes was voiced by some concerned citizens who feared the note’s wider exposure, particularly to sordid elements, would lead to a small-pox outbreak among those normally insulated from the lower classes. This reaction expresses the levelling effect of the new, lower denomination. Criticisms also took the old line of gold being preferable to paper. An editorial in The Argus (5 September 1913) stated ‘No man is likely to throw half a sovereign (a gold coin) into the fire, mistaking it for his tailor’s bill; but he might easily do this with the 10/- note. His feelings would be painful when he next found the bill and realised he had 10/- less to pay it with.’ The first Commonwealth banknote 3 To be offered at auction 23 March 2006 Creating new notes Prior to the introduction of Superscribes, however, planning was already underway for original design banknotes. A public competition for designs was announced in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 5 November 1910. Despite several winning entries being selected and prizes of £50 paid, none were deemed suitable and the task was contracted to the world-renowned engravers Bradbury Wilkinson & Co of Presentation of ten shillings M000001, 1 May 1913 London. The selected location of physical infrastructure for printing and storing banknotes was King’s Warehouse, Flinders Street Extension, Melbourne. Preparation, including the installation of machinery and security devices, was carried out during the years that followed. Commemorating the first issue A ceremony to commemorate the first distinct Commonwealth issue took place at King’s Warehouse at 3.00pm on 1 May 1913. The gathering included many of Australia’s most Printing banknotes, May 1913 eminent public figures, including Governor General Denman and family, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, Minister for Customs (Mr. Tudor), Acting Post-Master-General (Senator Governor-General Denman’s young daughter Judith was Findley), Vice-President of the Executive Council (Senator given the honour of numbering the first note, pulling the McGregor), Melbourne’s Lord Mayor (Mr Matthews) and lever and impressing the red serial M000001. The note was Governor of the Commonwealth Bank (Mr Denison Miller). then presented to little Miss Denman by the Prime Minister. Once the printing process had been demonstrated and a Approximately equal to a day’s wages, ten shilling was a batch of ten shillings notes prepared, the task of numbering generous souvenir, even for the relatively privileged Judith. the notes by machine-press was handed over to the assembly. To this day, the note is found together with an envelope inked ‘Judith’s 10/-’. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, NLA.PIC-AN 6589392-91-V LIBRARY NATIONAL The first Commonwealth banknote 5 To be offered at auction 23 March 2006 The Denman provenance and newspaper baron. In 1903 Gertrude married the politically sympathetic Thomas, allowing her husband to enter politics by Judith Denman, recipient of ten shillings M000001, was the way of his new found wealth and influence. When Thomas was fortunate daughter of Australia’s fifth Governor General, appointed Governor-General, Gertrude joined him travelling to Thomas Denman (1874-1954). His tenure began after arriving Australia with their two small children. As part of her official from England in July 1911, at a time when the role of the duties she named Canberra at a ceremony on 12 March 1913. Queen’s Australian representative was significantly different Following her return to England Gertrude kept active as a to that of the present. The Governor-General was duly treated public figure. From 1917-1946 she held the post of President with great ceremony and formal accord – a visit to Sydney in of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Other 1913 was a front-page affair. The political closeness between important posts included first Chairperson of the Family Australia and Britain also strengthened the esteem of the Planning Association, President of the Ladies Golf Union, a position. Trustee of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and a Director As the most politically liberal of Australia’s Governor-Generals of the Westminster Press and the Women’s Land Army. of the period, Denman was particularly cordial with the Labor Ten Shillings M000001 remained in the possession of the Party and its leader Andrew Fisher. His tenure is probably Denman descendants in England until 1999 when the decision best remembered for the role played in the political instability was made to part with the item. It was subsequently sold of 1914, when Cook’s Liberal government was hamstrung by privately for $1 million to the current owner, a private Sydney- Labor’s retention of the senate. A double dissolution lifted the based businessman. crisis however the pressures of the job coupled with his wife’s homesickness saw him resign and return to England later that Thomas Denman (left) and Gertrude Denman at the naming of Canberra, 1913 year.
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