50 Dollars 1983, New Zealand
| in Krause book | Number: 174a |
| Years of issue: | 1983 - 1984 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Chief Cashier: Mr. H. R. Hardie |
| Serie: | Decimal system. The Fourth Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1983 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 160 х 80 |
| Printer: | Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company, Whangarei |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 - 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society. This notice came at a crucial moment in both Cook's career and the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages.
In three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously achieved. As he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
Cook was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century and numerous memoria worldwide have been dedicated to him.
It is possible, that the prototype image of James Cook on the banknote was the work by artist Nathaniel Dance, finished in London on 25 May 1776.
Avers:
HM The Queen Elizabeth II. The photograph that was used of the Queen was taken in April 1975 by the late Reading-based photographer Peter Grugeon and later released for official use during the Silver Jubilee in 1977. It is one of the more popular images of The Queen. (Peter Symes).
Her Majesty is depicted wearing Grand Duchess Vladimir's tiara, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee necklace, the Royal Family Orders of King George VI and George V and Queen Alexandra's Wedding Earrings.
The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara.
No tiara is complete without a fascinating backstory, and this one's even got a daring escape. Made by Bolin, it glittered at the Russian royal court on the head of Grand Duchess Vladimir until the revolution, when it was left behind as the family fled. A British agent and friend smuggled it out of Russia to rejoin the exiled Grand Duchess and her collection. After her death, the tiara was bought from her daughter by Queen Mary. It's worn often today by the Queen with pearl or emerald drops, or occasionally with no drops. The pearl drop option has been the most popular with the Queen in recent years, probably owing to her love of white gowns in the evening and accompanying white jewels.
To mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, a committee of ladies was formed to raise money for a commemorative statue of Victoria’s late husband Prince Albert. The committee’s fundraising was quite successful, and they ended up raising far more than was required for the statue. An agreement was formed with the Queen that the excess should go to the St. Katherine’s Fund for Nurses. At the same time, some members of the committee decided that a portion of the funds should be used to purchase a necklace for the Queen - and this was also approved by Her Majesty.
The trouble was, the committee did not agree on the necklace. Some felt it would be wrong to spend the funds which had been previously devoted to charity on something else. Much discussion and debate ensued, as is described in depth in Hugh Roberts’ book The Queen’s Diamonds. (My favorite tidbit: Queen Victoria, angry that she wouldn’t get her promised necklace, shot down the prospect of a diamond badge commemorating the nursing fund by declaring she would “at once exchange it for another jewel”.
In the end, a compromise was reached and this necklace, made for £5000 (far less than the necklace originally proposed) from gold, diamonds, and pearls by Carrington & Co. was presented to Queen Victoria in 1888. It features a central quatrefoil diamond motif with a large pearl in the middle, topped by a crown and underlined with a drop pearl. The next four links in either direction are graduated trefoil motifs; the central piece and the six largest trefoils can also be worn as brooches.
She is also wearing Queen Alexandra’s Cluster Earrings. The wedding gift from the future King Edward VII to his bride, Alexandra of Denmark. Also known as Queen Alexandra's Cluster Earrings, these two button earrings have large pearls surrounded by diamonds - 10 larger stones each plus smaller filler stones to create a full diamond ring. Like the brooch, these passed to the Queen via Queen Mary. They're now worn primarily at evening functions.
Royal Family Orders.
King George IV started a practice in the British royal family which continues today: the awarding of family orders. These are diamond-set portraits of the monarch suspended from a silk bow (the color varying by reign), and they are today given to female royal family members of the sovereign's choosing as a personal gift.
Queen Elizabeth was first given her grandfather George V's order, set on pale blue silk.
Followed by her father George VI's, on pink silk, and she wears them both today. (A royal lady can wear all the family orders she has at once.) The orders are positioned on the left shoulder. They are worn for the most formal events, and can usually be seen on the Queen when she's at a tiara event.
In most renditions of this portrait, the Royal Family Order of King George VI is apparent below the left-hand shoulder of Her Majesty, while the uppermost portion of the Royal Family Order of King George V is apparent in only some renditions of the portrait. (Her majesty's Jewel Vault)
Various geometric patterns used to supply the necessary security and enhance the design. Value of note on top left and bottom right corners with the serial number opposite. Central portion carries the words: “This note is legal tender for....”.
Revers:
The morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae), also called the Tasmanian spotted owl, is a small brown owl found throughout New Zealand and Tasmania.
Two subspecies, the Lord Howe boobook and the Norfolk Island boobook, became extinct during the XX century.
Janette Norman and colleagues tested the cytochrome b DNA of three subspecies (as well as the powerful and rufous owls) to ascertain whether the closest relative was used in breeding with the last surviving female of the Norfolk boobook. The discovered that although the Norfolk boobook was similar in plumage to the Tasmanian boobook, that it was genetically much closer to the New Zealand subspecies. In fact, the two were so close genetically that they considered whether the Norfolk boobook should be recognised as a separate taxon at all, though conceded the two were easily distinguishable in appearance and so maintained the three as subspecies; the Tasmanian boobook only diverged by 2.7% from the other two, while the powerful and rufous owls diverged by 4.4% from each other. Leading from this, the southern boobook was split from the Tasmanian boobook and morepork in volume 5 of the Handbook of the Birds of the World, however several authors, including Les Christidis and Walter Boles, contested that the data had been misinterpreted from the Norman study, which hadn't sampled any Australian mainland boobooks at all. They treated the three taxa (southern, Tasmanian boobooks and moreporks) as a single species.
Examining both morphological and genetic (cytochrome b) characters, Michael Wink and colleagues concluded that the southern boobook was distinct from the morepork, as was the Tasmanian boobook, which should be raised to species status as Ninox leucopsis.
The bird has almost 20 alternative common names, including mopoke, boobook and ruru- many of these names are onomatopoeic, as they emulate the bird's distinctive two-pitched call.
It occurs in most habitats with trees, ranging from deep tropical forests to isolated stands at the edges of arid zones, farmland, alpine grasslands or urban areas, but is most common in temperate woodland. They are usually seen singly, in pairs, or in small family groups of an adult pair and up to three young.
In Maori tradition the morepork was seen as a watchful guardian. It belonged to the spirit world as it is a bird of the night. Although the more-pork or ruru call was thought to be a good sign, the high pitched, piercing, ‘yelp’ call was thought to be an ominous forewarning of bad news or events. (Department of Conservation)
Morepork is mentioned in the Maori legend "Mataora and Niwareka in the Underworld*, the owl brought them out from the underworld. More about it you can read here (The Maori Underworld of Rarohenga).
Metrosideros excelsa (pōhutukawa, New Zealand pohutukawa, New Zealand Christmas tree) is a coastal evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display of red flowers made up of a mass of stamens. The pōhutukawa is one of twelve Metrosideros species endemic to New Zealand. Renowned for its vibrant colour and its ability to survive even perched on rocky, precarious cliffs, it has found an important place in New Zealand culture for its strength and beauty and is regarded as a chiefly tree (rākau rangatira) by Māori. The blossom of the tree is called kahika.
The generic name Metrosideros derives from the Ancient Greek metra or "heartwood" and sideron or "iron". The species name excelsa is from Latin excelsus, "highest, sublime". Pōhutukawa is a Māori word. Its closest equivalent in other Polynesian languages is the Cook Island Māori word po'utukava, referring to a coastal shrub with white berries, Sophora tomentosa. The -hutu- part of the word comes from *futu, the Polynesian name for the Fish-poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica), which has flowers similar to those of the pōhutukawa.
The pōhutukawa grows up to 25 meters (82 ft.) in height, with a dome-like spreading form. It usually grows as a multi-trunked spreading tree. Its trunks and branches are sometimes festooned with matted, fibrous aerial roots. The oblong, leathery leaves are covered in dense white hairs underneath.
The tree flowers from November to January with a peak in mid to late December (the southern hemisphere summer), with brilliant crimson flowers covering the tree, hence the nickname New Zealand Christmas tree. There is variation between individual trees in the timing of flowering, and in the shade and brightness of the flowers. In isolated populations genetic drift has resulted in local variation: many of the trees growing around the Rotorua lakes produce pink-shaded flowers, and the yellow-flowered cultivar 'Aurea' descends from a pair discovered in 1940 on Mōtiti Island in the Bay of Plenty.
A giant pōhutukawa at Te Araroa on the East Coast is reputed to be the largest in the country, with a height of 20 meters and a spread of 38 meters (125 ft.). The tree is renowned as a cliff-dweller, able to maintain a hold in precarious, near-vertical situations. Like its Hawaiian relative the ʻōhiʻa lehua (M. polymorpha), the pōhutukawa has shown itself to be efficient in the colonisation of lava plains - notably on Rangitoto, a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf.
According to Maori legend, the pohutukawa at Cape Reinga has stood for a millenium or more, and represents the departure point for the spirits of the dead; they slide down the tree's exposed roots into the underworld.
Denominations in numerals bottom left and top right. In words top left.
Comments:
Image of Morepork owl, sitting on a branch of Pohutukawa, is depicted on the 5 Dollars 1999 coin of New Zealand. One such coin I found at home.
The De La Rue engraving, as well as reflecting the differences mentioned in Portrait 17a, also represents The Queen with a more cheerful aspect, achieving this through slight differences around Her eyes and lips.
Bradbury Wilkinson's version of this portrait has less shading on The Queen's neck just above Her necklace, than is apparent on the De La Rue engravings (Portrait 17b). There are other subtle variations to the second version, noticeably in the patterns on Her Majesty's dress.
If you find my work useful I will be grateful for any help in supporting the site.
-
PayPal