On the 6th of June in 1923, the first of Australia’s new “Harrison” or “gold bearing” series banknotes were issued into circulation. Shortly after the notes were released, Treasury decided to alter the design of the front of the note very slightly by removing the name of the person responsible for engraving the printing plates. Unfortunately, the general public wasn’t informed of this minor change, and there was something of a panic - many folks simply refused to accept them.

Research by the eminent numismatist, Dr Alan Nicholson, has shown that at the same time Treasury decided upon this change, they had also identified a potential problem - some of the serials being used on the new notes had actually already been used on the Type I Superscribed £1 notes, issued between 1910 and 1914. This could hinder the identification of potential forgeries, the format used in the serials on both types of note was one letter as a prefix, with six digits in the number.

It was Nicholson’s theory that once Treasury officials became aware of this duplication in serials, all of the new “Harrison” series £1 notes were quickly withdrawn and destroyed, and were replaced by notes that had two numbers in the serial prefix.

Dr Nicholson formed one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Australian banknotes ever seen, and he described the R22a as being “excessively rare”, comparing it with the R18a (Collins Allen £1 note with red serials) and the R20 (Emergency Rainbow £1 note), both rightly regarded as true icons in the pre decimal note series.

Nicholson shared his research in 1995, and at the time he stated that he had seen no more than about six unique examples of this note in all his time collecting. Although the latest figures point to there being certainly more than that available, there is little doubt that the R22a remains a true rarity in the pre decimal note series, the first of Australia’s first truly uniform banknotes.

A quick check of auction records confirms that most of the R22’s that remain in existence circulated heavily.