Historic Australian holey dollar sells for record $485,000 * By Joel Cresswell * From: AAP * July 04, 2011 6:22PM ALREADY passed through innumerable sets of hands, one of Australia's first coins has been sold to a new owner for close to half a million dollars. A Melbourne-based collector bought one of the 300 remaining holey dollars for $485,000, a record price for this type of coin. The purchase comes almost 200 years after the British government bought 40,000 Spanish silver dollars to solve a currency shortage in its fledgling penal colony, trading on crudely drawn bills and rum. A hole was then punched through the centre to devalue and localise the coins to ensure they weren't smuggled out of Australia. Melinda Cuppens, managing director of rare currency dealer, Coinworks, who sold the holey dollar last month, said the coin had probably travelled the world before arriving in Australia around 1813. It was originally minted in Spain in 1789, an era in which the silver dollar was regarded as the key international currency. Ms Cuppens says she's amazed then that the coin is one of the best preserved of the 200 remaining in private collections. "It's probably in the top 10 of those holey dollars you could lay your hands on," she said. "What's the probability that a coin struck in 1789, which was a great international trading coin, would circulate for 24 years beforehand, and virtually not have a mark on it (today)?" Ms Cuppens has tipped a spike in interest in the coins to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the pressing of the holey dollars in 2013. She said the buyer was mindful of that anniversary but also infatuated with its design. "He comes from a design background and he likes the beauty of the piece as much as anything and I think he does see a lot of faith in that coin particularly with 2013 coming up," she said. Most holey dollars were returned to Britain to be melted down and sold as silver bullion as they were phased out of circulation. src: http://www.news.com.au/national/his...00/story-e6frfkvr-1226087396886#ixzz1R83gU3sB
I was with Ck when he was chatting to Melinda ,I was in ore ,just listening to her talk about those coins. She said they owned the 1 of 2 on display
if only my 88,89,90 and 2003 Holey dollars were some percentage of that price! Wow - that must be some serious numi record?
I suppose that sometimes a person could have put away, or even mislaid, some coins for 20 years or so. Maybe it rolled under his desk or somesuch. But wouldn't an 'expert' be able to tell if it was fake? OC
