While many countries like to put a pithy motto on their currency, when the colony of NSW printed its first banknotes in 1817 it featured an assurance from the Bank of New South Wales.

The bank wanted to assure customers it intended to be fair and equitable as the financial underpinning of a growing colony.

That bank later became financial giant Westpac, the same institution that has just loaned the last known banknote from that time to the Australian Museum. Westpac is also sponsoring the transformation of the museum's Long Gallery into a showcase for 200 of its most significant treasures, of which the note will be a highlight.

The two-centuries-old 10 shilling note was purchased by Westpac last year when it came up for auction after being discovered in Scotland. Its history goes back to the early decades when NSW was a penal colony.

When the British set up their colony in 1788 it was mainly to absorb excess convicts and as a base to look after trading and naval interests in the Pacific and Asia. There were no thoughts of setting up a mint or giving the colony its own currency.

Apart from IOUs privately exchanged, there was also a system of issuing promissory notes to colonists who deposited surplus produce in the government commissariat stores.

These notes promised payment for the produce, but it was only redeemable back in England and was not guaranteed by the government.

A barter system evolved with exchanges of goods and services and at one point alcohol became the most desirable currency, leading to the garrison officers the NSW Corps being nicknamed "the Rum Corps".

To read the complete article, see:
There's nothing 'rum' about NSW's first official banknote (www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/theres-nothing-rum-about-nsws-first-official-banknote/story-fnpoi7cy-1227649143855)