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Nearly 60 years before The Perth
Mint began striking official coinage on Western Australian soil, some of the
earliest banknotes printed in Australia were issued by the Western Australian
Bank.
Established on 23 June 1841, the
WA Bank was founded by a group of influential pastoralists and merchants
including George Shenton and Edward Hamersley.
As shareholders in the Bank of
Western Australia, formed in 1837, they had been unhappy with the
board’s decision to amalgamate with the Bank of Australasia.
The first branch of their rival WA
Bank was located at the eastern side of the intersection of St Georges
Terrace and Pier Street – now the location of St Andrew’s
(Uniting) Church.
It received strong support from
local depositors. In fact, it was so successful that the Bank of Australasia
was forced to withdraw from the west in 1845.
WA Bank’s first issue of
notes was on 24 June 1841. These notes are known today by collectors as the
“Type One” variety, and were composed by a local printer in black
ink on one side only. The paper stock used was extremely light, even when
compared to other notes from the pre-Federation period.
Western
Australian Bank 1844 Unissued One Pound.
More information: Sterling & Currency.
By the end of the year, some 1,800
of these notes had been issued, a figure that had risen to 4,000 by January
1844.
Several hundred unissued examples
of the “Type One” WA Bank £1 note were marketed by the
well-known coin dealers Downies. They were
presented in a coloured cardboard album that
contained a range of background information on the bank and the notes, and
was decorated by a number of contemporary watercolours
of the Swan River Colony.
Downies’
literature stated that “From records, it is possible that up to 650
of these notes exist in original and uncancelled
condition. However, experts believe the number surviving may well be as
little as half of that number.”
At the WA Bank’s half-yearly
meeting on 10 January 1844, the directors announced that: “A supply
of new Notes, of a more durable character and from an engraved plate, is also
daily expected, to supersede the neat but temporary note in type, which has
hitherto been in circulation.”
These “Type Two” notes
were engraved with an oval containing a swan, the title of the bank and
“Established 1841” at the top. As part of the design, the word
Perth appeared in the side borders and they were issued here until 1 November
1860.
It must have been a sad day for
many Western Australians when in January 1927 the 84-branch WA Bank was
acquired by the Bank of New South Wales, marking the end of a local
institution “that had so long identified with the life and fortunes
of this state.”
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