The National Library has posted the intriguing tale of how they rediscovered Australia’s first pound note in their own archives.
The pound, with the serial number P 000001 was a gift from the Treasury Secretary to Prime Minister Fisher in 1913, sent with the laconic note:
I enclose £1 note No 1 as promised—You might give me a sovereign for it later on.
Fisher in turn sent it to Prime Minister Stanley Bruce in 1927 for preservation in the Library.
At some point it was put in a plastic sleeve marked “specimen notes and other currency” until a recent search for the note turned it up.
It’s now been valued at $1.5 million and will be going on display at the Library’s “Treasures Gallery” from May 11.
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