10 Shillings

New Zealand's first Reserve Bank notes — this series among them — were introduced following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1933, which transferred the right of note issue away from the trading banks that had held it since the colonial period. The transition was not instantaneous; trading bank notes continued in circulation alongside the new Reserve Bank issues for some years, creating a brief overlap that frustrates attribution in worn examples.

Lefeaux served as the Reserve Bank's first Governor, appointed at its founding. His signature on this note places it firmly in the earliest phase of central bank issue.