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POCKET GUIDE TO AUSTRALIAN BANKNOTES 1 Australian Panorama THE NATION'S FIRST BANKNOTES

Harrison Series | 1923–1925

Detail of the front of the half sovereign (10 shillings) banknote, showing the profile of King George V, the first monarch to be portrayed on Australian banknotes.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives, NP-003538.

10s

Front of the half sovereign (10 shillings) banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in September 1923.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003538

Back of the half sovereign (10 shillings) banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in September 1923.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003538

£1

Front of the £1 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in June 1923.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003585

As the significance of gold mining had declined since the first series of banknotes, the image of the Victoria Quartz Mine was replaced on the £1 banknote by E. Phillips Fox's painting.

The back of the banknote reproduced Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, 1770, by E. Phillips Fox, oil on canvas, 1902.

National Gallery of Victoria

Back of the £1 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in June 1923.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003585

£5

Front of the £5 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in March 1924.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003602

Back of the £5 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in March 1924.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003602

£10

Front of the £10 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in May 1925.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003602

Back of the £10 banknote, intaglio with letterpress background, and full watermark of basket-weave pattern, first issued in May 1925.

Reserve Bank of Australia Archives NP-003623

References

1. The printers for British India had conducted an inquiry into banknote printing that found portraiture increased the difficulty for counterfeiting. Reserve Bank of Australia Archives, Note Board Papers, N-N-3

2. G.C.Dixon, Ugly Stamps Criticised by Artists ‘Disgrace to Australia’, The Herald (Melbourne), 4 October 1923, p. 12.

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