The first ten shilling note of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was sold via private treaty sale in 2025 – the current record holder for the most expensive RBNZ New Zealand banknote.
(Ex Aventine Auction & Fixed Price List No.1 February 2024, $105,000 NZD FPO; Stacks 2016, $35,250 USD Hammer)

For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, New Zealand’s monetary system was shaped by the now-unfamiliar practice of private trading banks issuing banknotes for public circulation. Each of the six major banks below issued New Zealand currency with permission from the Crown.

• The Union Bank of Australia, established in 1840 in Petone (then known as Britannia), was the first trading bank in New Zealand. Over a century later, in 1951, it merged with the Bank of Australasia to form the institution Australians and New Zealanders recognise as ANZ Bank. It further expanded in 2003 by acquiring the National Bank of New Zealand.
• The Bank of New South Wales, Australia’s oldest bank (founded in 1817), opened its first New Zealand branch in 1861 and rebranded in 1982 following its merger with the Commercial Bank of Australia to form Westpac.
• The Bank of New Zealand, established in 1861 and still operating under its original name, BNZ, was the nation’s most prolific issuer of banknotes.

Today, surviving examples of these early colonial-era banknotes are scarce and rarely seen in high grades. In the wake of the great depression amid other economic challenges, the 1933 RBNZ Act was passed, establishing the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as the sole issuer of legal tender coins and banknotes from 1 August 1934. The first ten shilling note of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, issued under Governor Lefeaux, bears the serial number Z000001. It appeared on the global market in 1994 when it was first sold by the world's premier auction house, Spink and Son of London, and 31 years later, by Aventine Coins & Bullion, New Zealand's leading specialist firm for numismatic rarities and auction representation.

On its importance, Joshua Lee, numismatic rarity specialist at Aventine (Devonport branch) and collector in New Zealand, commented: “It is truly a spectacular rarity of national significance as the first [Reserve Bank] New Zealand banknote, and it has been a privilege to play a role in the journey of what is undoubtedly one of New Zealand’s most significant numismatic items.”

The sale of the number one New Zealand note – the very first banknote issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand – marks more than a record-setting sale. It marks the long-awaited return of a national icon through Aventine's stewardship and success in elevating New Zealand's presence on the global numismatic stage. 

Sell with the firm that delivered the Number One rarity. 

Aventine Coins & Bullion
Coins | Banknotes | Gold & Silver Bullion 
Level 1, Unit D, 31 Bartley Terrace, Devonport
sales@aventine.co.nz
aventine.co.nz