Holey dollar
Holey dollar is the name given to coins used in the early history of two British settlements: Prince Edward Island and New South Wales. The middle was punched out of Spanish dollars, creating two parts: a small coin, known as a "dump" in Australia, and a "holey dollar".
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[edit] Prince Edward Island
From 1497, the Spanish government minted a large silver coin which through wide circulation became known as the Spanish dollar. Around the end of the 18th century, this coin was in constant circulation in Eastern Canada and the United States. The value of the coin varied in different centers but was highest in Halifax. Using this knowledge, whenever the merchants of Prince Edward Island (PEI) secured them, they sent them to Halifax, to take advantage of the higher rate. The resulting shortage of money in PEI prompted the governor to gather in all the Spanish Dollars he could and have their centers punched out. Both the central plug and rims were stamped with a sunburst. The punched centers passed as shillings and the outer rims as five-shilling pieces. The mutilated coins were thereafter no longer acceptable outside of the island, so as a consequence, became the official currency there.
[edit] Australia
When the colony of New South Wales was founded in Australia in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage. Foreign coins – including British, Dutch, Indian and Portuguese - were common in the early years, but much of this coin left the colony by way of trade with visiting merchant ships.[1]
To overcome this shortage of coins, Governor Lachlan Macquarie took the initiative of using £10,000 in Spanish dollars sent by the British government to produce suitable coins in a similar manner to that described above. These coins to the value of 40,000 Spanish dollars came on 26 November 1812 on the merchant ship the HMS Samarang from Madras,[2] via the East India Company.[3]
Governor Macquarie had a convicted forger named William Henshall cut the centres out of the coins and counter stamp them.[1] The central plug (known as a dump) was valued at 15 pence and was restruck with a new design (a crown on the obverse, the denomination on the reverse), whilst the holey dollar received an overstamp around the hole ("New South Wales 1813" on the obverse, "Five Shillings" on the reverse). This distinguished the coins as belonging to the colony of New South Wales, preventing them from being useful elsewhere and creating the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia.[3]
The project to convert the 40,000 Spanish coins took over a year to complete. Of the 40,000 Spanish dollars imported, 39,910 holey dollars and 39,910 dumps were made with the balance assumed to have been spoiled during the conversion process.[4] The converted coins went into circulation in 1814.[1]
From 1822 these coins began to be recalled and replaced by sufficient sterling coinage.[3] By the time the holey dollar was finally demonetised in 1829, most of the 40,000 coins in circulation had been exchanged for legal tender and were melted down into bullion.[1] Experts estimate that only 350 Holey dollars and 1500 dumps remain.[5]
The rarity of the Australian holey dollar ensures that even those in relatively poor condition are valuable. There are many stories of holey dollars being found in unusual circumstances.[6]
In the Australian TV series Matlock Police, one episode was based around a lethal hunt for a cache of holey dollars stolen by local bushranger "Holy" Joe Cooper over a century earlier (episode 155, "Nothing Man").
Macquarie Bank uses the holey dollar as their logo to represent ingenuity and financial knowledge.
[edit] Similar coins
Although not known as "holey dollars", several British colonies in the Caribbean used the same method for producing coins from Spanish dollars. They include British Guiana, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Tobago and Trinidad. The holed coins and plugs circulated alongside various other coins made by cutting Spanish and Spanish colonial coins into sections. These coinages were denominated in either shillings and pence or bits, worth nine pence.
See Dominican dollar, Grenadan dollar and Saint Vincent dollar.
[edit] Principality of Hutt River
The Principality of Hutt River issued a commemorative $1 coin in 1977 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. In 1978, another issue of the Hutt River Province Principality's $1 coins was issued. This has no commemorative inscription. These coins are also known to numismatists as holey dollars as well.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d National Museum of Australia collection highlights: Holey dollar
- ^ The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 28 November 1812. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628576. Retrieved 23 February 2010. Described as "... with treasure for the use of government."
- ^ a b c Ian W. Pitt, ed (2000). Renniks Australian Coin and Banknote Values (19th ed. ed.). Chippendale, NSW: Renniks Publications. ISBN 0-9585574-4-6
- ^ Coinworks, The History of Australian Coinage -1813 Australia's first coins
- ^ Mira and Noble 1989, as cited in Pitt 2000 p. 9
- ^ Australian Stamp and Coin Co: NSW Holey Dollar (5 Shillings) 1813
[edit] External links
- Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada
- Holey Dollar Story: Macquarie Bank
- Museum of Australian Currency: Currency Chaos
