Availability and pricing.
It is an interesting exercise to look at the availability of Dumps and their current market values with an acknowledgement on our part that there is a vast price difference between a well circulated 1813 Dump and one in the upper echelons of quality.
But the information that we have gleaned from our research clearly shows the reasons why.
You can acquire a well-used 1813 Dump for $5,000 - $10,000. Of course you won’t see much of the design: it will almost be obliterated. Expect some gouges and unsightly marks at this level also.
Moving up the quality scale you will find a Fine to good Fine Dump for $15,000 to $25,000. The design will be evident, but flattened, and the coin will more than likely be a bit knocked around. The reality is that finding examples below the $25,000 price level is a relatively easy task.
Buyers that are looking for a higher quality example might stretch their budget to $30,000 - $40,000 and so walk away with an about Very Fine to Very Fine Dump.
The graph clearly shows that the 1813 Dump is reasonably readily available up to, and including, a quality level of Very Fine.
What is also obvious from the graph is that Good Very Fine (gVF) is the point at which extreme rarity kicks in.
A buyer looking for a good Very Fine Dump can realistically be looking at a one to two-year time frame to secure a coin. And expect to outlay $45,000 to $75,000 to acquire a Dump at this quality level.
Particularly if the buyer sets down some specifics with the Dump such as wanting complete denticles, 'H' for Henshall visible and the presence of the original Spanish Dollar from which it was created, better known as the under-type.
It is at the quality level of About Extremely Fine, and above, that the task of finding a Dump becomes tough and testing, invariably involving years.
The graph below clearly shows that at a quality level of about Extremely Fine to Extremely Fine you are in 'rarefied air' and buyers can expect to outlay $100,000 or more at this level.
But it is the about Uncirculated area of this chart that is the absolute killer. Collectors have access to only two about Uncirculated Dumps, one struck using the A/1 die, the other using the D/2 die.
Given that top calibre Holey Dollars are selling for $450,000-plus, the price expectation of the very best Colonial Dumps is very fair and reasonable.
The four dies used to create the 1813 Dump.
Four distinctly different die combinations were employed in the striking of the Colonial Dump, classified as the A/1, D/2, C/4 and E/3.
Historians believe that the D/2 dies were the first dies used in the striking of the Dump. Most of the coins have deficiencies in their striking that suggest that the die was larger than the silver disc that fell out of the holed silver dollar. Approximately 250 D/2 examples are available to collectors.
Historians also suggest that the A/1 dies were taken up after the D/2 dies were rejected, the A/1 producing coins that were better executed, well centred. Approximately 500 examples are available to collectors.
While the E/3 and C/4 specimens are exceptionally scarce (15 and 10 are known), they also are exceptionally crude and aesthetically very challenging.
They are immensely interesting and definitely part of the Dump story; their demand however is generally restricted to those collectors wanting to acquire a complete set of the different die combinations.
Their limited numbers and the crude state in which they appear have historians concluding that they were most likely trials, prepared before a design acceptable to Governor Lachlan Macquarie was approved.
