First Australian banknote set to fetch $3.6 m

AUSTRALIA: Australia's first banknote, printed 100 years ago and found in a letter in England in 1999, has gone on sale for Aus$3.5 million (US$3.6 million), auctioneers said Wednesday.

The 10 shilling note, with the serial number M000001, was issued on May 1, 1913 and presented by Prime Minister Andrew Fisher to Judith Denman, the five-year-old daughter of the Governor-General at the time, Lord Denman.

It was discovered in 1999, nearly 12 years after Denman died when her effects were being sorted out, and acquired by a private collector in Sydney for Aus$1 million in 2000.

It then sold at auction in 2008 for Aus$1.9 million.

AFP