From 1817 up to this time, bank notes were first issued by the Bank of New South Wales and later, as they were incorporated, other private banks, as well as the Queensland Government. The note featured with this article is from the London Bank of Australia Limited, which was to play a considerable part in the superscribing of notes.

The London Bank of Australia Limited was incorporated in December 1852 by Royal Charter. It had offices established in London and planned to establish branches “in the colonies”.

Obviously, the news of the gold finds had reached England. In February 1853, the two selected managers sailed for the southern shores, bound for their proposed new branches in Melbourne (John Bramwell) and Sydney (Robert Napier).

Both branches opened simultaneously on Friday, July 1, 1853. Melbourne was the principal branch.

Issuing Commonwealth bank notes was put on the backburner by politicians for over half a decade after Federation. A draft bill was written in 1907 removing the note-issuing responsibility from the various private banks and proposing that Commonwealth notes “payable on demand” be issued.

The debate on the issuing of coins and bank notes lingered until almost 11pm on Wednesday evening, September 7, 1910, before finally gaining assent. This new bill became known as the Bank Notes Tax Act and was passed the following month.

While the politicians talked, the officials in the Treasury wondered how the new notes would be printed as the Government did not have the equipment.

The printing of bank notes would require suitable blank bank note paper, printing inks, designs which then had to be engraved onto printing plates, serial numbers, distribution and a whole host of tasks.

Someone proposed, as an interim measure, that unissued bank notes that had already been printed by the private banks be used and overprinted with the words “AUSTRALIAN NOTE” and the promise to pay the bearer in gold on demand, along with some ornate designs. 

Several private banks were informed that their forms would be used first. The bank notes of the private banks were quite large, in some cases twice as large as we have today. This included the Bank of New South Wales, City Bank of Sydney, Bank of Australasia, Commercial Bank of Tasmania, Australian Bank of Commerce - Sydney, Commercial Banking Company - Sydney and the Union Bank of Australia.  

The Treasury had the notes overprinted in Melbourne, the job commencing with a symbolic printing of two notes only on October 19, 1910, with proper production starting the following day.   

The printing was done in black ink vertically down the original notes with the words “AUSTRALIAN NOTE.  Payable in Gold Coin at the Commonwealth Treasury at the seat of Government”. 

The notes were signed by “Jas R Collins, Accountant, Geo. T. Allen, Secretary to the Treasury. December 1, 1910”.  Above the inscription was the Australian Coat of Arms and two six-digit serial numbers with a prefix letter. The serial number was repeated at the base of the lettering, in between a pair of mosaic patterns.  

These “superscribed notes” circulated in the Bathurst economy for about four years, sustaining Bathurst businesses until enough of the new series of Commonwealth notes were finally printed in Australia. The outbreak of World War One caused some emergency issues, but these were soon recalled when suitable bank note printing paper arrived.