Lot 2818

Description

Presentation tray, in silver plate (290mm) by Hardy Bros Ltd, made in England, ornamental raised and scalloped edge, three decorative legs, centre impressed, 'Presented to / Dr. H.C.Coombs / with the esteem and affection / of his / Managers in New South Wales / 26th November, 1959.' Scratches and polishing lines otherwise very fine and a significant numismatic related article for one of Australia's banknote signatories for nearly twenty years and during the decimal currency changeover.

Herbert Cole `Nugget' Coombs, 1906-1997, was an Australian economist and public servant. Born in Kalamunda, Western Australia, the son of a railway station master and one of six children, he attained a BA (Hons) and MA from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from the London School of Economics. His early post school years were spent teaching and furthering his studies in economics. In 1935 he became an economist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, at that time Australia's central bank. In 1939 he moved to the Department of the Treasury and in 1941 was appointed to the Commonwealth Bank board by Prime Minister John Curtin. In 1942 the Treasurer of the time, Ben Chifley, appointed Coombs as Director of Rationing and in 1943 Director-General of a newly created ministry, the Department of Post-War Reconstruction. Coombs became a confidant of Chifley and when the latter was appointed Prime Minister in 1945 Coombs was one of the most powerful public servants in Australia's history. In January 1949 Chifley appointed Coombs as the Governor of the Commonwealth Bank. Even after a change of government, Coombs was retained in this key economic role and in 1960, when the Reserve Bank of Australia was established to assume the Commonwealth Bank's central banking responsibilities, he was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. He retired in 1968. He was heavily involved in various other fields including the arts and Aboriginal affairs and in fact was the prime author of the Labor Party's policy on Aboriginal affairs and the commitment to Aboriginal land rights. His advice against resorting to financing government operations by unorthodox means was ignored resulting in the Loans Affair of 1975 that led to the dismissal of the Whitlam Government. The signature H C Coombs appears on all Australian banknotes, firstly as Governor of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 1 January 1949 to 13 January 1960 and then Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 14 January 1960 to 22 July 1968.