ALLAN Collins only met his great-uncle once, but he has always been aware he held a unique role in Australian history.
James Richard Collins, born in Sebastopol in 1869, was one of two Treasury secretaries who signed the first set of Australian banknotes following Federation.
The eight Collins/Allen notes were recently put up for sale to mark the 100th anniversary of their printing and are expected to sell for up to $5.5 million.
The notes date from 1913-14 and include eight banknotes of 10 shillings, one, five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 pound notes, along with a 1000 pound note, which features a flock of sheep.
Mr Collins and George Allen signed the notes, which are known as cancelled specimens because they are marked with an X and perforated with “cancelled”.
Notes like these were sent to central banks around the world to get people used to the new currencies before their official release.
Mr Collins said he was only eight when his great-uncle came to visit his brother in 1933.
“He was a great man. He died in London the next year,” Mr Collins said.
Mr Collins attended state schools in Ballarat before joining the Victorian Public Service as a Treasury clerk in June 1886.
He ran the first Victorian Old Age Pension Office and became a Treasury accountant in 1900.
In 1926, he was appointed Australia’s financial advisor in London and represented Australia on the Pacific Cable Board, as a member of the Reparations Conference at the Hague and Lausanne and as a leader of the delegation to the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1931.