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5 Pounds
| Issuer | English, Scottish & Australian Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | ND (1910) |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain white note with ornate engraved script lettering throughout. A crowned royal cipher vignette appears at centre top, flanked by £5 numerals. The bearer promise text reads in copperplate style, with "Five" rendered in a decorative guilloché cartouche at lower left. Branch location and date fields left blank for completion; signature lines for Ent., Acct., and Manager appear at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | English, Scottish & Australian Chartered Bank Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of Five Pounds Value rec'd South Australia For the English, Scottish & Australian Chartered Bank Ent. Acc't Manager SPECIMEN |
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| Comments |
The English, Scottish & Australian Bank was formed in 1893 from the wreckage of the English Bank of Australia, which had collapsed in the financial panic that swept the Australian colonies that year. By 1910, the ES&A was one of the more stable British-controlled trading banks operating across Australia, though it remained headquartered in London — a structural peculiarity that shaped how its notes were authorised and printed.
Australian private banknote issue was effectively killed off by the Australian Notes Act of 1910, which granted the Commonwealth a monopoly on currency. This undated ES&A 5 Pounds almost certainly predates or coincides with that legislation, placing it among the final generation of private bank currency legally circulating on the continent. Few survivors exist in any condition.