10 Pounds

The Bank of Victoria Limited was one of the oldest colonial trading banks in Australia, established in 1852 during the gold rush years. By 1910, the bank had already survived two serious crises — the land boom collapse of the early 1890s and the subsequent bank suspensions that wiped out several of its competitors — and was operating on considerably reduced ambition relative to its mid-Victorian peak.

Australian private banknote issues of this period are genuinely rare survivors. Most circulating stock was recalled and destroyed when the Commonwealth Bank assumed its central banking functions, and the 1910 Australian Notes Act effectively ended the right of private banks to issue currency, rendering all such notes immediately obsolete. Very few examples from this final period of private issue escaped the incinerator.