Adelaide pounds

P

phrenzy

In Memoriam - July 2017
Silver Stacker
I never thought I'd be able to own one but I've been looking back through old noble auction results and some that are in pretty good shape that had issues, like being formerly mounted and so having some solder spots on the edge, have sold well below 2k in the last 10 years. A few that are straightforward VG+/F- for 3k give or take. If I traded in a few of my sovs and a couple handfuls of crowns/pillar dollars and US sliver dollars I might be getting close to half the cost in trade and could pay the balance.

For me it's pretty much the pinnacle of Australian coinage, maybe equal billing with the holey dollar and dump, but coming from Adelaide I feel a little extra incentive to have one. I know it's not the rarest or the strangest or, for the more bookish numismatists, even the most interesting but it would be a perfect pinnacle for a sov collection.

Since I've started collecting type 2 sydney mint sovs I've been thinking about getting a cheap 1855 type 1 but now that I know I might get an aF Adelaide pound for the price of a VF 55 type 1 I think I know which is at the top of my list.


Does anyone here have one? Or maybe chased one and not got it?

Is there anything peculiar to the AP someone should know before they think about buying one? Any tips for where to look for reasonably priced ones besides nobles auctions? Near as I can tell there are only a few for sale at dealers and they are only higher end ones (or ordinary ones priced like they are higher end).

Do people consider the Adelaide pound as a part of an australian sovereign collection or is it really a separate thing so together that happens to be minted to similar specifications?

Lastly, has anyone ever seen an Adelaide assay office ingot in real life? Ever see one for sale? What's the damage there? I couldn't even find any. I know I could never afford one but for a PM stacker into rare bars it doesn't get much better than that.
 
I've chased an Adelaide pound before... here on SS. About 12 months ago one was for sale, but couldn't negotiate a price that I could see value in.
 
phrenzy said:
Lastly, has anyone ever seen an Adelaide assay office ingot in real life? Ever see one for sale? What's the damage there? I couldn't even find any. I know I could never afford one but for a PM stacker into rare bars it doesn't get much better than that.
Click to expand...

We (the SA Numismatic Society) got shown some coins from the Art Gallery of South Australia collection a few years ago on a tour of the place. This was in the bowels of the building in backroom and we were looking through trays of coins. Saw an ingot, various Adelaide pounds, a proof 1930 penny, plus tonnes of other stuff. An ingot would be multi-millions, I think there's only one available to the private market.

EDIT

We wrote about the visit here: http://www.australian-threepence.co...th-australia-numismatic-collection-visit.html

We were not able to use any images we took while we were in the archives but the AGSA did email us some of their own images of the coins we looked at when we asked later. We don't appear to have ever posted them up anywhere and right now I can't find them. I'll look around a bit more today and see if I can post them up.

EDIT

Found the images. Here's the Adelaide Ingot we got to hold.

agsa-adelaide-ingot.jpg

Source: Image courtesy of Art Gallery of South Australia, used with permission and may not be reproduced without permission of the Art Gallery of South Australia
 
I've read a few things on your blog while googling various things, it's a fantastic resource. Do you attend the SA numismatics meetings? I only recently read about them, too late for this month, but it sounds great.

That ingot is amazing, I wonder if the original dies exist somewhere? I have no idea where the assay office is, but I assume there's not much left besides a bronze plaque on the wall indicating that "this 24 convenience store was where Australia's first gold coins were minted".

Digging deeper into Noble's auction records it looks like hardly any of the lower graded pounds have sold recently. Seems like there was a spate of them between 2002 and 2001 but not much since then. I suppose I should be patient and bide my time, the coins are 160 years old, I should be happy to wait a couple more. Who knows, maybe when the next GFC rolls around I'll pick one up cheaply.
 
NSSA meetings are the third Thursday of very month, held in the Royal Society rooms behind the State Library in the city. My partner or I usually attend most meetings. She's there more often than me.

Regarding "dies" there were no coining dies as such. Each ingot was unique. They were stamped with punches engraved by Joshua Payne (the same guy who did the Adelaide Pound dies).

According to 'Coinage and Currency of South Australia' (1912) by Thomas Gill the Assay Office was opened on February 10, 1852 and gold could be taken to 'the Assay Office, in the Government Buildings, King William-street". I imagine that'd be up around North Terrace somewhere.

EDIT

Quote from the official Adelaide City Council page on King William Street:

"A government construction on the corner of King William Street and Flinders Street, on the northern side of Victoria Square, in late 1839 housed the offices of the colonial secretary, treasurer, accountant, and the Lands and Survey Department. Treasury vaults were added in November 1850. The vaults contained furnaces to smelt gold from the Victorian gold rushes of the early 1850s. Most of the building was demolished in stages between 1858 and 1907. It was replaced by two and three-storey additions in the same style. The central courtyard and garden of the original building and the vaults were retained. The complex of offices became known as the Treasury Building."

So the Assay Office was almost certainly on the corner of King Wiliam and Flinders Street where the Treasury Hotel is. This page seems to confirm it.
 
I worked in the modern state treasury and finance building across the road for a while, there were great vaults in the basement there (really, massive) by I think they are modern and not related to those in the old treasury building. I don't know why but I didn't expect them to have been minted in the treasury building but since they were a government issue I don't know why they shouldn't be.

I wonder if there is an Adelaide council or state historian in charge who could arrange a visit. My girlfriend and I are both local history students and even she, specifically an australian history student, doesn't get anything much about South Australia. Sounds like the grist of an article to me.
 
Happen to come across these today on Downies.

My knowledge of the Adelaide pound is extremely limited.....apart from me wanting one tooooo

These specimens are both a little more than $2k :P

There both mine if I win xlotto this week.....actually if I win xlotto this week I will buy one for you phrenzy

PS: don't hold your breath , not the part about me buying you one....but the part about me winning xlotto



http://www.downies.com/searchedproduct.aspx?name=adelaide pound
 
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