2013 Australia Fifty Dollars CB13814362

Design

A remarkable banknote in every way with abundant security features. This note had some extremely special features built into it as security against forgery.  It was a world first and makes these notes highly desirable as collectors items. Collectors value numerous variations of this note.

The 50 dollar note embraces these following security features:

1. Within the clear window is printed a stylised image of a compass along with embossing of the number 50. These can be seen seen from either side of the note.
2. When the note is held up to the light a seven pointed star within a circle is formed by four points on one side of the note combining perfectly with three points on the other.
3. When the note is held up to the light an image of the Australian Coat of Arms can be seen under other printing.
4. The words FIFTY DOLLARS are microprinted and can be seen with the aid of a magnifying glass.
5. Slightly raised printing (intaglio) that can be felt with the fingers is used for the portraits and other major design elements.
6. Highly intricate multi-coloured fine-line patterns and images appear on each side.
7. Each notes serial number is printed twice, in black on the reverse of the note. A different font is used for each number. The alpha prefix of two letters is followed by two numerals representing the year of its production followed by a further six numerals. Under ultra-violet light, these serial numbers fluoresce.
8. Under ultra-violet light the notes denominational patch showing the number 50 becomes visible on the back of the note.

Obverse:    
David Unaipon (28 September 1872, Point Mcleay (Raukkan) Mission – 7 February 1967) was an Australian Aboriginal of the Ngarrindjeri people, a preacher, inventor and writer. Today, he is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration. David Unaipon was awarded ten patents, including a shearing machine, but did not have enough money to get his inventions developed. He was also known as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci for his mechanical ideas, which included anticipatory drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of a boomerang and his research into harnessing the secret of perpetual motion.

Reverse:   

Edith Dircksey Cowan (née Brown), MBE (2 August 1861 – 9 June 1932) was an Australian politician, social campaigner and the first woman elected as a representative in an Australian parliament.

Edith Brown was born and raised in Glengarry (HI) Station near Geraldton, Western Australia on 2 August 1861. The second daughter of Kenneth Brown and Mary Eliza Dircksey née Wittenoom, she was born into an influential and respected family that included her grandfathers Thomas Brown and John Burdett Wittenoom, and an uncle, Maitland Brown. When she was seven years old her mother died in childbirth, and her father sent her to a Perth boarding school run by the Cowan sisters, whose brother James she would later marry. Her father remarried, but the marriage was unhappy and he began to drink heavily. When Edith was fifteen, he shot and killed his second wife, and was subsequently hanged for the crime.

Watermark:  
With the introduction of the new polymer banknotes we saw the end of the customary Cook watermark. It was replaced with the Variable Optical Security Device in the bottom corner.