The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 12, March 19, 2006, Article 25

SPECIAL AUSTRALIAN TEN SHILLING NOTE OFFERED

The Sidney Morning Herald reported on the offering of an
Australian note with a special serial number and history:

"It's a bank note that has a lot of noughts, though its face
value is a mere 10 shillings. It's Australia's first 10 bob note,
issued in 1913, bearing the serial number M000001. For that reason,
it's expected to sell for a sum with just as many noughts, perhaps
as much as $1.2 million, when it's offered at a Noble Numismatics
auction on Thursday at the Intercontinental Hotel. It's the same
note that made headlines in the Herald back in 2000 when it sold
privately for $1 million.

It seems the PM of the day, Andrew Fisher, gathered with various
dignitaries at Melbourne's King's Warehouse on May 1, 1913 to
witness the first Commonwealth of Australia notes being printed.
Judith Denman, daughter of the governor-general, Lord (Thomas)
Denman, was given the honour of pulling the lever and impressing
the red serial number on the first note, and was presented with
the note by Fisher as a souvenir.

The note returned to England with her, and was later acquired
by an Australian dealer and sold to a Sydney businessman. It is
being offered together with the Government House, Melbourne,
envelope in which it had been kept, bearing an ink inscription
"Judith's 10/-".

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

[The article adds, interestingly, that the new notes were
feared to be a carrier of disease: "...wealthy Australians
tut-tutted over this because it would be much handled by the
lower classes, which would lead to diseases like smallpox."
-Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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