History-rich banknote, medal up for auction
A unique 1968 City Bank of Sydney £1 banknote coming up for auction by Mowbray Collectables has a rich history in the Manawatū.
The one-of-a-kind note is the only known banknote to have been issued and the only surviving example of the bank’s first issued £1 note. First owned by Charles Thorne, who was a Sydney wine and spirit merchant, it was then passed on to the family of Joseph Nathan.
The Nathan family was “greatly significant” in New Zealand business history, a spokesperson from Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and Heritage said.
Joseph was a Jewish immigrant who first went to Australia before moving to Wellington in the 1850s.
It was in the 1890s that he set up a dairy factory outside of Feilding which then went on to produce New Zealand’s first dried milk formula food, Glaxo, for babies in 1904. The Nathans famously then moved into pharmaceuticals and started GlaxoSmithKline (GSK Pharmaceuticals).
Both Glaxo baby food and Glaxo medicines were major businesses in the international market at the time.
Joseph’s son, Frederick, was also a Palmerston North mayor from 1923 to 1927.
His most prominent accomplishment while in office was to successfully lobby the government to establish an agricultural college, now known as Massey University in Palmerston North.
The note had stayed within the family ever since, Mowbray Collectables managing director David Galt said.
Alongside the banknote, a Manawatū Agricultural and Pastoral Association medal given to former Palmerston North borough councillor Stephen Robert Lancaster will also be at the auction.
The auction would be held at the West Plaza Hotel in Wellington on March 19 and 20. The banknote was on offer with an estimate of $12,500, while the medal was expected to sell for about $600.