Banknotes on offer

This promissory note is one of only three known making it a genuine rarity from the historic town of Echuca, founded by Henry Hopwood. Hopwood was a convict sentenced to 14 years transportation arriving in Van Diemen’s Land in 1835. Granted a free pardon in 1846, he went to the Murray District in 1850 and seeing the commercial potential for river trade, he bought a small punt establishing Hopwood’s Ferry which serviced a growing community. Initially known as Hopwood’s Ferry, the settlement was renamed Echuca on 1 January 1855. By 1858 Hopwood, or “King Hopwood” had transformed the riverbank site into a small town, featuring a pontoon bridge, newspaper, school, warehouses and vineyards. The following year Hopwood built the Bridge Hotel, featured on the back of the item, a double-storey brick building that operates to this very day. This item was issued by Hopwood’s Ferry, Murray River, Echuca and payable at William Nicholson & Co., 13 Flinders Street, Melbourne. William Nicholson & Co of Melbourne were Wholesale Grocers and Produce Merchants – one of the first to operate a branch in Hopwood’s Ferry supplying the station runs. The signatory J.W. Mann was in all probability Nicholson’s accountant/manager. The back of the note depicts a large vignette from a woodcut by Calvert of Hopwood’s Ferry alongside the Hopwood Pontoon Bridge. Next to the Bridge Hotel in the vignette is a small two room hut owned by Hopwood and occupied by his punt manager, the famous riverboat captain William Davies. At the time of his death from typhoid in 1869, Hopwood was a very wealthy man and Echuca had become a commercial hub as a vital river port and railway junction, being the shortest distance between the Murray River and Melbourne. Paddlesteamers unloaded their cargo at Echuca for it to be transported to Melbourne via train. Presented in good very fine condition, this item is steeped in history and a tangible relic of the treasured past of Victoria's Murray River region, and as such would be a valuable acquisition for any banknote and/or Australiana related portfolio. Hopwood’s Ferry. One Pound. Echuca 186-. MVR Not Listed good Very Fine $14,500