A superscribed note is a note printed by a private bank and sold to the government so it can be overprinted, in Australia’s case by the Queensland treasury in 1893 or by the Commonwealth government in 1910. Superscription was a temporary measure to cover delays in issuing paper currency.
The rarest superscribed notes are those issued by the Queensland Government under the Treasury Notes Advances Act of 1893. These took the form of overprinted (superscribed) notes of eight private banks who sold their forms to the Colonial Treasurer. These were gradually withdrawn and destroyed as the Queensland Government issued its own notes early in 1894. Following Federation and the passage of the Australian Notes Act of 1910, forms from private banks were overprinted with “AUSTRALIAN NOTE” and the promise to pay the bearer in gold on demand until the Commonwealth Government could produce its own notes.
Reserve Bank records show the rarity of these notes: the maximum number of superscribed believed to be outstanding are 448 x £1, 261 x £5, 158 x £10, 42 x £20, 34 x £50 and 10 x £100.
Superscribed notes from smaller banks are even rarer, especially in higher denominations.