New South Wales rarity auctioned
Roxbury’s October sale in Queensland saw one of the great rarities of Australian paper money on offer: a £1 emergency issue of the New South Wales Government of 1893 (PS-1001)….
Roxbury’s October sale in Queensland saw one of the great rarities of Australian paper money on offer: a £1 emergency issue of the New South Wales Government of 1893 (PS-1001). Just three such notes are known in private hands today.
In 1893, a financial crisis hit New South Wales. The colonial government moved to shore up the dangerous situation. It legislated to make note issues of those trading banks that had not been suspended legal tender, i.e., holders could no longer demand gold in exchange for them. Secondly, it issued notes drawn on the government treasury to depositors in the suspended banks using depositors’ accounts in these banks as collateral.
The colonial treasurer was authorized to issue legal-tender Treasury Notes up to the value of £2,000,000 in values of £1, £5, and multiples of £5. These were payable in gold five years hence.
Today, examples of only the £1 denomination are known, of which No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8 have appeared at auction.
That on offer at Roxbury’s was No. 5. It went to the block in about VF and produced some stiff competition between one room and one phone bidder before finding a new home for $9,525 on its $5,500 estimate.
Full catalog details and prices realized are available on Roxbury’s website: www.roxburys.com.
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More Collecting Resources
• When it comes to specialized world paper money issues, nothing can top the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Specialized Issues .
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