The ''Australian Notes Act 1910'' was an Act of the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...

which allowed for the creation of Australia's first national

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s. In conjunction with the ''Coinage Act 1909'' it created the

Australian pound The pound (sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. Like other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol s o ...

as a separate national currency from the

pound sterling Sterling (symbol: £; currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of sterling, and the word '' pound'' is also used to refer to the British currency general ...

. The act was enacted on 16 September 1910 by the Fisher Labour Government under Section 51 (xii) of the Constitution of Australia, which gives the Commonwealth Parliament the power to legislate with respect to “currency, coinage, and legal tender.” The act gave control over the issue of Australian notes to the Commonwealth Treasury and prohibited the circulation of state notes and withdrew their status as legal tender.Reserve Bank of Australia
History of Banknotes
/ref> The '' Bank Notes Tax Act 1910'', enacted in October of that year imposed a prohibitive tax on

s issued by

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

s in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

by imposing an annual tax of 10% on "all bank notes issued or re-issued by any bank in the Commonwealth after the commencement of this Act and not redeemed", which effectively ended the use of private currency in Australia.

Transitional measures

As transitional measures, blank note forms of 16 banks were supplied to the Australian Government in 1911 to be overprinted as redeemable in gold and issued as the first Commonwealth notes. For the next three years, some of the earlier private banknotes were overprinted by the Treasury and circulated as Australian banknotes until new designs were ready for Australia's first federal government-issued banknotes, which commenced in 1913.

Subsequent events

The ''Australian Notes Act 1910'' was repealed on 14 December 1920 by the ''Commonwealth Bank Act 1920'', which gave note issuing authority to the

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...

. In 1960, responsibility for note printing passed to the

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

(RBA). S.44(1) of the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' now prohibits private and State currencies. The section prohibits any person or a State from issuing "a bill or note for the payment of money payable to bearer on demand and intended for circulation". In 1976, Wickrema Weerasooria suggested that the issuing of

bank cheque A cashier's check (or cashier's cheque, cashier's order, official check; in Canada, the term ''bank draft'' is used, not to be confused with Banker%27s draft as used in the United States) is a cheque, check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank' ...

s contravened s. 44(1); banks responded that bank cheques were printed with the words "not negotiable" on them, which marked them as not intended for circulation, and hence they did not violate the section.

References

{{Reflist Currencies of Australia Repealed Acts of the Parliament of Australia 1910 in Australian law Financial history of Australia

Transitional measures

Subsequent events

See also

References