Australia's first coins

[JulieW]

http://www.watoday.com.au/money/aus...dollars-showcased-online-20160923-grn1fe.html

"It's a fascinating coin," she says. "Nothing matches it for interest from the public. Everyone admires the Holey Dollar."

The Macquarie Bank certainly does. It uses a stylised image of this coin as its corporate logo.

Exactly how many remain is a mystery. One estimate is that there are about 300 100 in museums, 200 in private hands. Fifty have already been photographed for the Coinworks project. Owners of unrecorded examples are encouraged to contact Downie via the coinworks.com.au website. Details of provenance, quality, weight and size will be documented on a stand-alone Holey Dollar website to be launched later this year. The owner's identity will not be revealed.

These coins date to 1813 when Governor Lachlan Macquarie, faced with a cash crisis, decided to create his own currency by modifying a selection of Spanish dollars. He did this by punching a hole in the centre with New South Wales and the date stamped around the inner circumference. The original Spanish identification is on the outside, giving these coins a unique dual personality.

 

[errol43]

If you find one you will have to find big dollars to buy!

Regards Errol 43

 

[SteveS]

What a lovely thing that is.

 

[Clawhammer]

A little back history, Macquarie replaced Gov. Bligh...as in the same Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty "fame".

After being such an incompetent cnt that a whole boat of professional officers & sailors overthrew him and took his ship., the British thought it would be a good idea to put him in charge of an entire colony, Australia.

He was such an incompetent cnt that the colony (including commissioned officers) overthrew him & took control of the colony (while he hid under his bed).

Due to a lack of coinage, the colony had been using rum as a form of currency. Bligh's replacement, Macquarie's 1st move was to stop this practise and in just a few years there was no coinage and no rum trade and the situation was dire...all thanks to Macquarie. (To praise him for solving the problem he caused is like praising an arsonist firefighter.)

The innovation for punching the centre out of a spanish dollar wasn't even his idea... the Canadians had come up with the idea first.

(After being charged with his 3rd Mutiny, Bligh was acquitted and promoted to Rear Admiral... he was subsequently promoted again some years later to Vice Admiral of the Blue)