IT started with a phone call from areader: Shane said he had something hewanted to pass by me. It was a printer’splate with an engraving of Sir HenryParkes. The plate, he hastened to add,depicted a portrait which might be partof a banknote; which was just as well,as my mind was already racing withpossibilities of a worldwide major numis-matic scoop. He said the plate came inan envelope with an impression of aninscription that was only revealed whenrubbed with a lead pencil. It read “NuggetTrial 10/- Sir Henry Parkes as you req-uired.” The vignette was of a head andshoulders portrait of Sir Henry Parkes.Shane had already identified it as beingsimilar to a picture on the website of theReserve Bank of Australia and it seemedto be a replica of the image used for theunissued 10/- note of the early 1950s.This unissued note is listed on the

website under the page: CommonwealthBank and Note Issue 1920-1960, sectionFirst Post War Notes: A Fresh ApproachEarly Designs, and is also illustrated inthe book “Australian History 1901-2001As Seen Through Banknotes” by Joanneand Edward Dauer and John Pettitpublished in 2007. The Reserve Bankwebsite describes the post war need for anew series of currency banknotes with aportrait of King George VI for the £1 andprominent figures in Australia aroundthe time of Federation on the other den-ominations. One of these portraits wasof Sir Henry Parkes (the ‘Father of Feder-ation’), intended for the 10/- note.Another fascinating part of the story

is that the same vignette appears to havebeen used for the £50 that is also featuredon the RBA website under page: TheCommonwealth Bank and the Note Issue:1920–1960, section: Unissued Notes ofthe 1950s.The highest denomination of Australian

note issue at this time was £10; howeverthe post-WWII world was beginning torecognise the need for higher value notesand this matter was being kept underreview by the Commonwealth Bank.Therefore the bank was working on poss-ible designs so as to be able to respondquickly if the need arose. Missing out onbeing included on the 10/- note, Parkes’portrait was put forward for the poten-tial £50 issue, together with that of SirEdmund Barton, Australia’s first PrimeMinister, on the £100 note.These designs were to symbolise Aust-

ralia’s Federation. Sir Henry Parkes(1815-1896) became known as the ‘Father

AMAZING GARAGE FIND: Parkes Platefor unissued notes from 1950s by Tony James

Printing plate as it was found during a garage sale, with protectivecoating scratched and showing rust.

The plate after cleaning

of Federation’ in recognition of his effortsduring the last decade of his life to ad-vance the cause of nationhood.

The printing plateShane found the envelope containing

the small printing plate in a box of “junk”

he purchased at a local garage sale. Hewas looking for Australiana and printingephemera and the box of junk was anassortment of mementos of some one’searlier life, which shows that numismaticitems can turn up in the most unlikelyplaces.

The buff envelope, with a print of theimage of the plate, was reinforced withcloth backing and Shane found theimpression regarding the Nugget Trial10/- notation, revealing it through pencilrubbing the impression. The steel plate,measuring about 5cm by 8cm and 5 mmthick is coated with a wax covering toprotect the surface from damage anddeterioration from rust.

Supporting evidence Before Shane phoned me regarding the

plate, he had contacted Virginia Mac-Donald, the archivist at the Reserve Bankof Australia in Sydney. Virginia’s responseto Shane’s email established that theplate could not be definitely tied to theprinting plate for the unissued 10/- plate.However, she did mention that “a searchof our records has located an image feat-uring a keyline portrait of Sir HenryParkes that was considered around thetime the banknote design for the uniss-ued 10 shilling banknote was beingdeveloped. The image itself is labelled‘Sir Henry Parkes preparatory engravingsketch New Issue Notes (not proceededwith)’. For your information, keylinedrawings are developed and used to cre-ate the engraved image on a printingplate.” Virginia went on to advise that“our records also make reference to theexistence of an engraved printing platedepicting a portrait of Sir Henry Parkeshowever we are unable to determine whatexactly was depicted on the plate, includ-ing whether the attached key line imagewas the portrait used to develop thatparticular printing plate or its intendeduse. We are therefore unable to confirmwhether the printing plate that you havein your possession was in fact producedfor the purposes of developing the uniss-ued 10 shilling banknote design.”When I received the plate from Shane

I spent some considerable time going overit with a 10x magnifying glass compar-ing the plate and the print on the envelopewith the 10/- and £50 illustrations in thebook by Dauer and Pettit. Having prev-iously been involved with this publica-tion, I was aware that the illustrationshad come direct from the collection ofthe Reserve Bank and was therefore con-fident that close or exact images wouldindicate a distinct possibility that thesteel plate on my desk was such a keylineengraving.Holding such an item in my hands, even

with the possibility that it may not be theactual plate of the vignette used for theunissued banknote, it was tremendouslyexciting to compare the pictures, platesand envelope image. Line by line etchedinto the plate, the image created appearedto match the pictures. This was madeeven more interesting by the fact that Iknew that any plate of the entire note

Envelope with image stuck on the outside

The proposed ten-shilling note with the portrait of Sir Henry Parkes RBA NP-003125 fromAUSTRALIAN HISTORY 1901-2001 As Seen Through Banknotes. Reproduced by permissionof the authors, Dr Edward and Joanne Dauer.

was never going to be released from thedepths of the repository of the ReserveBank of Australia. So the other commentfrom Virginia regarding the connectionand ownership of this printing platewas just as interesting,”Given that we areunable to confirm the connection betweenthe printing plate in your possessionand the unissued 10 shilling banknote,there are no grounds for the Reserve

Bank to provide any comments aboutwhether you would be able to retain theitem. Our records unfortunately don’tprovide us with any further informationand we apologise for not being able toassist more in this regard.”

Printing the platePrinting plates are made for the sole

purpose of creating images, and this plate

was produced especially for printingimages by the intaglio printing method.This process is restricted to the printingof high definition artwork and securitydocuments. With the advent of digitalprocessing, it is becoming increasinglydifficult to find ways of producing printsfrom these intaglio plates. This is inaddition to the situation that arises whensuch images might be part of a security

The unissued £50 note bearing the image of Sir Henry Parkes. Image courtesy of The Rare Coin Company. Used with permission.

Printing press at the College of Fine Arts University of NSW

printing plate, such as is used for papercurrency. My hunt for a way to producean image from this plate was made eas-ier by a contact already made with theCollege of Fine Arts, a faculty of the Uni-versity of New South Wales. When I contacted Michael Kempson,

Senior Lecturer and Director of CicadaPress, he was very open to my suggestionthat I bring the plate in to see if a printcould be taken. He was particularly inter-ested as his students rarely saw this sortof item and were unused to inking and

producing prints from plates such asthese. A further reason for interest is thattoday there are of course very few pressesthat are capable of producing intaglioprints, due to the heavy pressure requiredto force the ink from the plate onto thespecial paper. I made a presentation tohis class of student print makers andintroduced them to the hobby of banknotecollecting, illustrated with some notes,and of course the intaglio plate.After several attempts to get the inking

right and to adjust the press levels, just

five copies of the print were selected, andall others that came off the press werethen destroyed, to maintain the integrityof the print that will now be put onpublic display.

The new resting placeFor the time being, this new discovery

will be housed in the Sir Henry ParkesMemorial Museum, at the Sir HenryParkes Memorial School of Art in thecountry town of Tenterfield in northernNew South Wales. The museum, circa1875, is owned by the National Trust andoperated by the Tenterfield Shire Coun-cil. The museum, already emphasisingthe history of Sir Henry Parkes and thespeech that he made in Tenterfield on24 October 1889 earning him the epithet“Father of Federation,” will gain a specialnumismatic gem to join the polymer $5issued in the year of the Centenary ofFederation and the $1 coin issued thesame year. All of these items featureimages of Henry Parkes and make themuseum a must see for all numismaticcollectors and visitors to Tenterfield.

AcknowledgmentsShane, for bringing this numismatic treasureto lightVirginia MacDonald, Museum & ArchivesConsultant, Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney.Mr Ken Halliday, Curator, Sir Henry ParkesMuseum, Tenterfield NSW.

ReferencesDauer J, Dauer E & Pettit J. Australian His-tory as seen through banknotes 1901-2001. 2007McDonald G, Australian Coins and Ban-knotes ValuesPitt I. Australian Coin and Banknote ValuesRenniksAustralian Biographies Henry Parkeswww.tenterfieldtourism.com.au/heritage.htmlwww.rba.gov.au/Museum/Displays/1920_1960_comm_bank_and_note_issue/summary.html

� � �

Asmall group of collectable Aust-ralian notes featured at the four-

teenth Archives International Auctions’sale held in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in April.Top price of $7,080 was scored by a

PMG graded VF30 Cerutty/Collins 10shillings half sovereign overprint withbold prefix/suffix letters, N and Q,McD10, R03b. Someone got a bargain.McDonald’s prices this note in this gradeat $9,500.A VF, if somewhat grubby Coombs/

Wilson $2 star replacement was snappedup for $350, with $330 paid for an UNCexample of a P&T one shilling speci-men postal note c.188x. A complete 1974Phillips/Wheeler Type 3 specimen set,$1-$50, was passed in. Full catalogue details and prices real-

ized can be found at www. archivesinternational.com

� � �Cerutty/Collins ten shillings overprint, McD10, R03b, that realized $7,080 at the ArchivesInternational sale. Image Archives International.

AUSSIE NOTES PROVIDE SIDE-SHOW AT AIA 16 APRIL SALE

The finished print from the press