John Glover

This unique 100 pound cheque was written by John Glover on the 11th of March 1842 to request that a solicitor in Tasmania pay an Allport & Roberts the agreed amount, it reads:

It has been signed across by Butler in red ink with the words:

The reverse is also singed by Butler and features several illegible words.

John Glover was an English born artist who became known as the father of Australian landscape painting. Born in 1767, he immigrated to Tasmania when he was 64. By this stage he had already established a reputation for his romantic landscape paintings of the British countryside.

Upon arrival in Australia, Glover received a large land grant and began to paint the Australian countryside. He was particularly noted for his treatment of the sunlight on the landscape, depicting it in a bright and naturalistic way that was in stark contrast to the way light was usually painted in Britain and indeed by some other Australian landscape painters.

New Signature

In September 2006 Mr Glenn Stevens took over as Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Stevens assumes the position previous held by Ian Macfarlane, who had been in the role for ten years.

The change in office also means a change in currency with new banknotes about to be issued bearing Stevens’ signature. To date only a specimen sheet of 40 $5 note has been released. The larger run of circulation notes is due for release shortly.

American banknotes have undergone a similar change over recently with Henry M Paulson Jr taking over as Secretary of the Treasurer.

Mystery NOte

This 1996 Fraser/Evans $100 note is a "test issue" printed with a prefix of BX96 (the normal prefixes are from AA96 to JK96) which indicates it was one of the notes the Reserve Bank printed to test a modification in the materials used in printing the notes. This is similar to a series of 1997 Macfarlane/Evans $5 notes that were printed for a similar reason, with prefixes outside of their normal range.

However, this note is unusual in that the areas that are normally printed in black ink have been printed in a blue ink similar to that used on the $10 note. Enquiries regarding this note with the relevant authorities at the Reserve Bank have revealed that the error is genuine and not the result of dye (the other colours on the note appear as normal) However, they would not reveal the reason behind the printing of this mysterious 'blue' $100 note.

Because of the nature of banknote printing there must be at least another 31 notes in circulation, where are they?

Emergency Dollar

"In order to accomodate the public with a further supply of coin for small payments, a quantity of dollars, which have been supplied by the Bank of England and stamped by the Mint, are now ready to be issued."

In March 1797 the Bank of England issued the above statement, alerting the general public that they were releasing foreign coins into circulation as a way to deal with a shortage of silver. The coins, which were largely Spanish and South American in origin, were struck with a small oval seal featuring the head of George III. As well as Spanish coins there are also records that French and American coins were struck in this fashion, although these are extremely rare.

Due to a wave of forgeries the original oval stamp was replaced with a larger octagonal shaped stamp. However, the decision was made by the end of 1797 to reverse the process with a recall being issued. A few years later it had been totally abolished, with the Bank of England claiming "stamped dollars converted to bullion."