£20   Banknote

£50 Banknote


Issued Signatories Serial Numbers
1914 – 1917 Collins/Allen – r64 X 000001 to X 040703
1918 – 1924 Cerutty/Collins – r65a Prefix of X – Small numbers
X 040744 to X 167283
1918 – 1945 Cerutty/Collins – r65b Suffix of X – Bold numbers
167284 X to 421500 X

Approximately 421,500 twenty pound notes were printed.
The design on the back of all Commonwealth of Australia twenty pound notes features timber cutting on Bruny Island in Tasmania.


The first signature combination
Lot 4722 at the Noble Numismatics Sale 98 held on 24th November, 2011 was an r64 banknote – graded aUNC – which realised a price of $139,800

The second signature combination


£50 Banknote
£50 Banknote

The third signature combination
Lot 606 at the Auction Galleries Auction 74 held on 2nd June, 2011 was a r65b note – graded EF – which realised a price of $267,950

All high denomination banknotes were recalled after the Second World War. This was gazetted in May 1945 as a national Security Regulation and it stated that after August 31 1945 denominations of £20 and above would cease to be legal tender. While this regulation never became law it had the effect of uncovering nearly £5,700,000 in hoarded currency. At the end of 1945 the following notes remained un-presented :

  • £20 - 506
  • £50 - 2,830
  • £100 - 2,146
  • £1,000 - 317

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