This silver salver was presented to George Tinline of the Bank of South Australia along with 2500 pounds and a vellum document in gratitude for his leading role in resolving South Australia's financial crisis in 1852-53. When Acting Manager of the Bank of South Australia, he proposed that gold bullion be used as legal tender, and this became the basis of the Bullion Act of 1852. As his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography says, 'Confidence was restored, gold flowed from diggers and dealers to the lucrative Adelaide market, the devalued currency ensured a roaring export trade with Victoria and the Bank of South Australia boomed.'

The testimonial dinner which was attended by 200 colonists on 5 April 1853 was hailed as 'the largest private dinner party that has ever been given in South Australia ... [and] by far the most important.' (Register, 7 April 1853, p3). The Register's account covered four newspaper columns. Tinline did not receive the plate on the night; instead a cheque for 210 pounds was given to Captain Bagot of the testimonial committee to purchase in England 'a suitable Service of Plate' with the following inscription: 'A GRATFEFUL MEMORIAL [for the] important services rendered by him during the Financial Crisis immediately preceding and subsequent to THE BULLION ACT; and IN TESTIMONY of his most considerate, judicious and successful efforts to maintain ... unimpaired, throughout that period, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CREDIT.'

The plate was manufactured in London by 'the successors of Storr and Mortimer', and arrived in the colony in October 1855. A detailed description of the plate, its design, emblems and representations appeared in the Adelaide Times (Adelaide Times, 5 November 1855, p2). It was put on display at the annual flower and fruit show of the Agricultural and Horticultural Show for the public to see. (Register, 7 November 1855, p2).

Tinline took the plate with him when he returned to live in England in 1863. On his death in 1895, it passed to his son and then his daughter. On her death the plate reverted to the trustees of 'The Public Institute, Adelaide, for preservation of an intresting memorial of the early history of the colony.' It went missing for a year after his daughter's death in 1926, before being found in the vault of the Goldsmiths Company in London and passed to the South Australian Agent-General in London for return to South Australia (Register, 20 December 1927, p11).

The salver is now in the History Trust of South Australia's Historical Relics Collection (HT90.104).

See Christine Hirst, 'Tinline, George (1815–1895)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/tinline-george-4725/text7839, published first in hardcopy 1976, accessed online 2 October 2019.