Lot 3266

Description

Ten Shillings, Riddle/Sheehan (1934), an officially issued Specimen note, with numbers C/26 282021, serial number in black and signatures in brown, watermarked with Prince of Wales to left, with additional Ten Shillings in red printed at top and side borders. The note is perforated once with the word 'Cancelled' (68 mm long) an upright cancellation, with 11mm high letters and then with 1mm black diagonal lines on both sides of the note, (R.10, Vort-Ronald 10, McDonald 18). Crisp, nearly uncirculated and of the utmost rarity, the only specimen note of this type ever offered at auction.

A total of 48,183,000 were printed of this type with this signature combination. This number is recorded as part of a group of 22 numbers used for specimen notes (p.76 Vort-Ronald). It is the fourth specimen type, cancelled by two crossed black diagonal lines and the word 'Cancelled' perforated. This note (like all the other specimen notes in this sale of this period) has the third last number used for the numbers allocated to these notes. Michael Vort-Ronald discussed this issue in 'Australian Banknotes' on pages 74-76 in chapter 7 on Specimen notes and pages 105-6 on the ten shilling note issue.