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1988 Australia Ten Dollars Bicentennial – AB25

$42.50 AUD

Availability: 1 in stock

SKU: AB25020682-22G Category:
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This example is from the 2nd issue.

Some very minor creases detract from its overall perfection. Truly a shame as it is very close to UNC quality.

Polymer banknotes do not flatten over time like their paper counterparts and as a result they retain any form of mishandling.

Ever since their release these notes have proved to be incredibly popular with collectors.

All versions will continue to steadily increase in value.

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Design

The world’s very first polymer banknote. Released in 1988 to celebrate the Bicentennary of Australia.  This note had an extremely special featuresbuilt into it as security against forgery being a hologram of Captain James Cook..  It was a world first and makes these notes highly desirable as collectors items. Collectors value numerous variations of this note. due to initial production problems.

There were 3 releases of this note due to initial technical difficulties with the production techniques.

The first release AB10 – AB33 (with the first 2 digits of the serial number being either 93, 94 or 96) The note had a thin varnish over the hologram which proved to wear out very quickly. When the problem was identified the printing ceased.

The second release AB10-AB57 (followed by regular serial numbers) used the same prefixes as the first release but did not employ the 93,94,96 sequence after it.  When printing resumed on this second run they applied a darker heavier varnish to the note which proved to work a great deal better.

The third release AA00-AA23 were released to the general public in blue colored Bicentennial Commemorative $10 Note Folder. These are the most common on the market given that more people kept them as momentoes and they did not suffer from the initial printing process errors of the previous two issues.

Obverse:

This design included the sailing ship HMS Supply anchored at Sydney Cove with a depiction of the early colonials in the background. These people symbolize all those who have contributed to Australia. From the left we see the early settlers and to right the modern working man.

Reverse:

Reverse includes portraits of the native population, the main picture is a young native youth with ceremonial paint, and in the background is a traditional Aboriginal Morning Star Pole also appearing are other Aboriginal artworks also commissioned by the RBA and a human like figure from the Dream Tme.

Watermark:

1988 Commemorative note was the first to employ optically variable device of Captain James Cook who first mapped Botany Bay,

History

By 1900 the recorded Indigenous population of Australia had declined to approximately 93,000 although this was only a partial count as both mainstream and tribal Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders were poorly covered with desert Aboriginal peoples not counted at all until the 1930s. The last uncontacted tribe left the Gibson Desert in 1984. During the first half of the 20th century, many Indigenous Australians worked as stockmen on sheep stations and cattle stations. The Indigenous population continued to decline, reaching a low of 74,000 in 1933 before numbers began to recover. By 1995 population numbers had reach pre-colonisation levels and in 2010 there were around 563,000 Indigenous Australians.

Although, as British subjects, all Indigenous Australians were nominally entitled to vote, generally only those who “merged” into mainstream society did so. Only Western Australia and Queensland specifically excluded Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders from the electoral rolls. Despite the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 that excluded “Aboriginal natives of Australia, Asia, Africa and Pacific Islands except New Zealand” from voting unless they were on the roll before 1901, South Australia insisted that all voters enfranchised within its borders would remain eligible to vote in the Commonwealth and Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders continued to be added to their rolls albeit haphazardly.

Despite efforts to bar their enlistment, around 500 Indigenous Australians fought for Australia in the First World War.

*All biographical details are taken from Wikipedia for education purposes only.

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