b'4The Fascination withHoley Dollars and Dumpsof New South WalesThe creation of Holey Dollars in 1813, at the instigationby having a circular disc punched out from the centre of of the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, for use in theeach Reale coin and counter stamped the outer ring and Colony of New South Wales, was historically uniquecentre with relevance solely to the Colony.in multiple ways. The English Government purchased 40,000 Spanish 8 The Colony was initially used by Britain to rid itself ofReale silver coins, which were an international medium an uncontrollable increase in criminals, filling the gaolsof exchange, for 10,000, from the East India Company, and prison hulks, all within a backdrop of the loss ofMadras, India. They arrived in the Colony, aboard the the Americas under King George III, who opposedunseaworthy HMS Samarang, on 26 November, 1812. the Colony having its own currency. Before 1813,The Holey Dollar, namely the outer ring, was valued the Colony accepted any currency brought there byat five shillings, while the inner centre, the Dump, visiting traders, sailors and settlers. Military control inwas valued at fifteen pence. Spain had various Mints the Colony was vested in the New South Wales Corp,for producing the Reale, comprising of mined silver, which was corrupt. Rum was traded as a currency. in Madrid and Seville [Continental Holey Dollars], The net result was [social and financial] chaos: [PhilipMexico, Lima in Peru, Potosi in Bolivia [which, from the Spalding The World of the Holey Dollar per Forward;sixteenth century, was regarded as the largest industrial First Edition 1973]. As Spalding further observed "Therecomplex for mining silver] and Guatemala.is a marked parallel between the early history of theAnother amazing fact, was the fact that Governor currency of the senior Australian Colony and that of theMacquarie appointed a former currency forger, but who, Plantations in the New World; and by some strangeby then, was an emancipated convict, William Henshall, quirk, the first silver Colonial issues of America wereto engrave the dies and construct the coin press. valued in "shillings" and "pence; whereas, the first silverHenshall, who had been a metal engraver and cutter in coins of New South Wales were the Holey Dollars ofEngland, was transported to the Colony as a forger. In 1813" [Forward Page xiv]. total, 39,910 Holey Dollars, and an equivalent number The Governor sought to break the Corps power byof Dumps, were produced out of a total of 40,000 obtaining the approval of the Parliament of Britainplanchets [a metal disc from which a coin is struck]. to issue special currency: The result was the HoleyEighty-nine were too badly damaged, during trials, to Dollar [also called "Ring Dollars" in Official Despatches,go into circulation. The Governor wrote in dispatches and as "Holed Dollars" in such newspapers as theto London that there was "difficulty of making the Australian, The Colonial Times and The Sydney Monitor]Machinefor cutting and stamping the Dollars in the and Dump [better known then as a "Quarter Dollar"],manner proposed and it [i.e the Machine] failing more as the first gazetted and minted coinage for the landthan once afterwards."that became "Australia." In 1822, Governor Brisbane recalled the Dollars and No two Holey Dollars are perfectly identical. This isDumps by Proclamation, and re-issued them in 1823. otherwise unknown in the striking of official governmentOut of 39,910 issued Holey Dollars, 34,058 were approved currency elsewhere in the world. Governorredeemed ["Colonial Secretary-in Letters" Bundle 17 No. Macquarie emulated the Administrators of the West8 Mitchell Library: q.v. "The Holey Dollars of New South Indies and the traders in Prince Edward Island, Canada,Wales-their fate" by Dr W J Mira and published by The Metropolitan Coin Club of Sydney 1979 Page 7].'