1813 Dump design type E/3, the finest known with a revered pedigree

The Dump (with a value of Fifteen Pence), was a vital part of Macquarie's plan to introduce the nation's first currency: specifically to fill the role of 'small change', thereby reducing the dependency on low denomination promissory notes.

The industry today acknowledges that there are about one thousand surviving examples of the 1813 Dump, with eight hundred available to collectors, the balance held in museums and public institutions. 

Within that collector pool, the Dump appears in four distinctly different styles (or die combinations).

The four styles have been classified by authors Mira and Noble as the type A/1, D/2, E/3 and C/4.

The different styles on the obverse are reflected in the shape of the cross on the crown, the position of this cross in relation to the letters in the legend above it. And in the positioning of the row of jewels (or pearls) in the crown. 

On the reverse, differences are found in the distances between the words 'FIFTEEN' and 'PENCE' and in the position of the 'T' in 'FIFTEEN' in relation to the 'N' in 'PENCE'.

Historians suggest that the D/2 dies were likely the first die combination used, for the coins exhibit weaknesses in the edges and the legend, suggesting that the die was too large for the silver disc. Of the 800 surviving Dumps 20 per cent were struck using the D/2 dies.

More than 75 per cent of the Dumps were struck with the A/1 die combination, producing a coin that remedied the shortcomings of the first run of coins and produced Dumps that have strength in the edges and the legend and an overall, well centered strike.

The balance of surviving Dumps (5 per cent) were struck using the E/3 and C/4 dies. The dies are poorly engraved and are considered an early effort and may have been produced to test die pressure and planchet temperatures. 

The examples produced from the E/3 and C/4 dies are intriguing and an essential part of the 'Dump' story.

1813 Dump design type E/3, nearly Very Fine and the finest known, recorded in Mira Noble 'The Holey Dollars of New South Wales'' page 92, Greg McDonald's Australian Coins and Banknotes, page 162

Price $65,000

The quality of this coin is absolutely supreme. 

The finest of the E/3 Dumps, it was offered at Spink Auctions Australia, March 1988 Bicentennial auction. 

And exhibited in 2013 at the Macquarie Bank, 1 Martin Place Sydney and again in 2019 at the Royal Australian Mint, Denison Street Canberra. 

It is a much revered piece, featured as the representative example of a Dump struck using the E/3 dies in the Mira Noble Catalogue and the Greg McDonald reference book.