For many years, the Australian Banknote series was undervalued and largely ignored by traditional numismatists. However, this has changed dramatically in the last decade and this area of the market continually draws new eager Collectors. New records are achieved at almost every major Auction and the appreciation of quality Banknotes is exceptionally high. From the distinctive Colonial style of the early "Promissory Notes" to the high-tech polymer Banknotes, the Australian Series has undergone a rapid and remarkable genesis which has produced some beautiful and scarce Banknotes. In particular, the robot size and texture of the Pre-Decimal series give people the sense of holding "real money" which cannot be said about some of the modern notes used today.
The active Investment market for Australian Banknotes is primarily based around 3 key areas: the popular and scarce high grade Australian Decimal and Pre-Decimal Star notes , Quality Australian Pre-Decimal notes particularly those of the early King George V era (struck from 1913-1939) as well as both Decimal and Pre-Decimal specimens and presentation notes.
PRE-DECIMAL NOTES
The Australian Pre-Decimal notes consisted in 7 different denominations, Ten Shillings, Pound, 5 Pound, 10 Pound, 20 Pound, 50 Pound, and 100 Pound and notes struck from 1923-1933 are called "Gold Bearing Issues" as they were directly exchangeable for Gold i.e. a One Pound note was exchangeable for a Gold Sovereign, which had exactly the same value and currency of One Pound Pre-Decimal notes featured portraits of three different English Monarchs George V, George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
SPECIMEN NOTES
Specimen notes have no legal tender status but have been used world-wide by issuing authorities to give a clear indication of the design. They differ from normal circulation notes only that they are overprinted with a description which invalidates them as currency. Some types have either no serial numbers or all zeros even though several hundred of those notes might have been produced. In Australia, specimen notes have been issued for presentation to VIP's as well as reference material for major banks, commercial agencies and libraries. Many are very Rare with tiny mintages and because generally they have not entered circulation they are in very high quality - two key factors that have made them increase rapidly in value and will always make them popular to Investors/Collectors alike.
STAR NOTES
Star notes are a rare and interesting series of notes especially produced to replace a note spoilt during the printing cycle. The process of replacing damaged notes with "star" issues was first adopted in the USA around 1910. Australia was slow in adopt the idea and up to 1948 each spoilt note was replaced with another bearing the same serial number which had to be hand set. The star note was introduced to do away with this time consuming and laborious practice. Any time an error was discovered, it was plucked out of the system and replaced out of the system and replaced with a "star" note. These were printed as a special run and were almost identical to the normal note with exception of the serial number. Instead of the normal six digits, the replacement note had five digits and a star in place of the last digit. The pre-decimal printers preferred a hollow five-pointed star while the decimal designers favoured an asterisk and went one step further by using the letter "Z" as a prefix. The idea of the system was to keep each bundle of 100 notes in serial number sequence to make counting bundles easier for tellers. Automatic counting machines made the process redundant. The system was discontinued in 1971. There are no £10; $50 or $100 stars.