Australia’s Classic Rarities. Rare coins that have timeless appeal.

Rare coins that have timeless appeal. In this, we are talking about the nation’s first silver coins, the 1813 Holey Dollar and 1813 Dump, the inspiration of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

And the nation’s first gold coins spawned by the Gold Rush of 1851, the 1852 Adelaide Pound Type I and Type II. And the 1855 Sydney Mint Sovereign and Half Sovereign.

We are also talking about the nation’s first cupro-nickel square coin. A penny that featured Australia’s native bird, the 1919 Kookaburra Square Penny.

And last, and by no means least, the coin struck during the Depression, that brought instant wealth to its owners, the 1930 Penny.

These coins present a timeline of key points in Australia’s history.

They are highlights of our financial history and for collectors, highlights of our numismatic history. They also define Australians as people, our psyche, our entrepreneurial spirit and our resilience as a nation.

They set the framework for today's coin collectors.

Start your collecting journey …

If you are setting out on your journey to acquire Australia’s classic coin rarities, let our charts be your guide and your starting point.

Our first chart details the eight coins referred to above and their original mintage. With regards to the 1919 Square Penny and the 1930 Penny the mintage figures are only estimates as there is no official record of the numbers struck. (Denoted by an * in the chart.)

For collectors the key to evaluating the rarity of a coin (and hence its value) is to look beyond the mintage and consider its availability.

The availability is an indication of the number of examples available to collectors in a lifetime of collecting.

For example, it is noted that the original mintage of the Holey Dollar is 39,910. The coins were demonetised in 1829 with the vast majority recalled and melted down.

Today there are approximately 200 Holey Dollars held by private collectors with perhaps 100 held in museums. The figure '200' is the critical one for collectors. The original mintage is to a certain extent irrelevant.

The availability of 200 Holey Dollars, of varying qualities and varying prices, means that if a collector passes on an example in one particular year, he/she is quite likely to see another within two years … the downside being that prices will most likely have risen in the intervening time.

When you consider the number of collectors (worldwide) that are potential buyers of Australia's classic coins, you have a better understanding of just how extraordinarily scarce they are.

The second chart details the number of top tier examples, with the quality range that defines ‘top tier’ indicated in brackets.

It is an interesting exercise in relativity, if nothing else.

The extreme rarity of the 'top tier' classics helps us understand why such pieces are so sought after. And why they are so highly valued and command the prices that they do.

Throughout this article, be advised that Coinworks uses Australian grading standards. This should not be confused with P.C.G.S. and N.G.C. grading levels.

Chart 1. The original mintage. And the availability in today's collector market of the Holey Dollar, Dump, Adelaide Pound Type I and II, 1855 Sovereign and 1855 Half Sovereign, 1919 Square Penny and 1930 Penny.

Chart 2. Our estimates of the number of 'top tier' coins, with the quality range defined by that term indicated in brackets. The figures are based on auction data and Coinworks private sales.

The 1813 Holey Dollar and Dump

The Holey Dollar and Dump are the nation’s first coins struck in 1813 under the direction of Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

The British Government had no capacity to supply Macquarie with metal blanks to create Australia’s first coinage so, he improvised and ordered 40,000 Spanish Silver Dollars - foreign coinage - to use as his substitute for blanks.

Macquarie enlisted the services of William Henshall, a convicted forger, to cut a hole in each dollar thereby creating two silver pieces out of one. The donut shaped silver piece was over stamped around the edge of the hole with the date 1813 and New South Wales and became the Holey Dollar with a monetary value of five shillings. The small disc that fell out of the centre of the silver dollar was over stamped with the date 1813, New South Wales and a Crown and became the Dump. Its monetary value was fifteen pence.

The shipment of 40,000 Spanish Silver Dollars was converted into 39,910 Holey Dollars and 39,910 Dumps. Spoilage, mishaps during the minting process, and specimens sent to Great Britain as an official record of the striking account for the missing coins.

It is open to debate as to whether the Holey Dollars and Dumps solved the penal colony’s currency crisis. There is no debate however that the issuing of Australia’s first coinage symbolised the changing dynamics of the penal colony.

New South Wales had started out in 1788 as a jail, a repository for miscreants, under the governorship of Captain Arthur Phillip. It had emerged some twenty-five years later as a thriving economy requiring a formal medium of exchange to support a burgeoning commercial hub.

The 1852 Adelaide Pound

The discovery of gold in the 1850s is one of the most extraordinary chapters in Australian history, transforming the economy. And transforming our society for it marked the beginnings of a modern multi-cultural Australia instigated by mass migration, particularly from China.  

Several coins were spawned by the Gold Rush, including our first gold coin, the 1852 Adelaide Pound. It was struck at the Government Assay Office in Adelaide without the sanction of the British Government or the approval of Queen Victoria.

To validate their actions in circumventing Royal protocols, the South Australian Legislators found a loophole in the Government’s regulations and passed the Bullion Act, that allowed them to create their own mint and strike gold ingots. And eventually strike gold coins.

The Bullion Act No 1 of 1852 has a record unique in Australian history. A special session of Parliament was convened to consider it. Parliament met at noon on the 28 January 1852. The Bill was read and promptly passed three readings and was then forwarded to the Lieutenant Governor and immediately received his assent. It was one of the quickest pieces of legislation on record, with the whole proceedings taking less than two hours.

Thirteen days after the passing of the Act, on 10 February 1852, the Government Assay office was opened. Its activities were supported by a state government initiative to provide armed escorts to bring back the gold from the Victorian diggings.

The Assay Office was effectively Australia's first mint, be it unofficial. Its sole purpose was to assay gold nuggets brought from the Victorian goldfields and to re-shape them into ingots. No minting expertise was required in the casting of the ingots.

Nine months later, following agitation from Adelaide’s business community, legislation was passed that authorised the Government Assay Office to strike gold coins. Within a week of opening, 600 gold Adelaide Pounds had been delivered to the South Australian Banking Company, 100 of which were sent to London.

Photo shown above. The miracle of numismatics, the finest known Adelaide Pound Type II. Perfection in gold.

Suddenly precision was required. The design was intricate, created by colonial die sinker and engraver, Joshua Payne. So, it was always going to be a tough ask for a factory to start churning out currency to a defined weight and design.

The Bullion Act had a lifetime of only twelve months.

By the time the legislative amendments were passed to enact the production of gold coins, the Act had less than three months to run. As a consequence, only a small number of Adelaide Pounds were struck and very few actually circulated.

When it was discovered that the intrinsic value of the gold contained in each piece exceeded its nominal value, the vast majority were promptly exported to London and melted down.

The 1852 Adelaide Pound was as unofficial as you could get but it saved the colony of South Australia from bankruptcy. A simple case where the end justified the means.

1855 Sydney Mint Sovereign and Half Sovereign

The Gold Rush of 1851 spawned the striking of the nation’s first official gold coinage, a sovereign and a half sovereign struck in 1855. 

Unlike South Australia, which overcame a currency shortage by striking the Adelaide Pound, New South Wales followed protocol and petitioned for a branch of the Royal Mint London to be established in Sydney.

On the 19 August 1853 Queen Victoria gave approval to establish Australia’s very first mint at or near Sydney in New South Wales.

It was decided that, as the coin would only be legal tender in the colonies, a design specifically attributed to the Sydney Mint should be produced.

Designs of Australia’s first gold coinage were prepared in 1853 at the Royal Mint London. The Royal Mint also manufactured the dies.

The reverse design incorporated the words Australia and Sydney Mint, the inclusion of the word Australia, a point of fascination with historians. At the time the nation was operating as separate colonies. Australia did not operate under a single Government until Federation in 1901.

The Sydney Mint was established in a wing of the "Rum Hospital" in Macquarie Street, Sydney. The mint began receiving gold on 14 May 1855 and issued its first gold sovereign soon after on June 23. Months later, the Sydney Mint issued half sovereigns.

In their infancy the Sydney Mint sovereigns and half sovereigns were legal tender only in the colony of New South Wales. In 1857, the legal scope was widened to include all Australian colonies and Mauritius, Ceylon and Hong Kong. In 1868 the Sydney Mint Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns became legal tender throughout the British Empire.

The design of Australia's first sovereigns and half sovereigns - referred to as the Sydney Mint design -  lasted until 1870 and was the only time the word Australia appeared on our gold sovereigns.

From 1871, Australia's sovereigns and half sovereigns took on a traditional British design. 

The 1919 Kookaburra Square Penny

The introduction of the Kookaburra Square Penny underpinned an attempt by the then Labor Government to stir up national sentiment post World War I. To evoke the great 'Aussie' spirit.

If you think about it. Putting the nation’s native bird - the kookaburra - onto a coin was a no-brainer to achieving that goal. A drastically changed shape, a square. And a new metal, cupronickel was part of the total package to maximise impact on the nation's citizens.

The proposal was contentious in that the monarch, King George V, was to be depicted on the obverse without a crown. Some say it was the rumblings of a Republican movement way ahead of its time.

Tests commenced at the Melbourne Mint in 1919 with the test pieces ultimately passed to dignitaries and Government officials to assess their reaction.

Four different coin designs were tested in 1919 and they are referred to as the Type 3, Type 4, Type 5 and Type 6.

The Type 3 Square Penny, with its modern lettering and sleek-style kookaburra, has a design that is unique. The Type 5 Square Penny also has a unique kookaburra design. The Type 4 and Type 6 share the same kookaburra design, but have different obverse designs.

All of the 1919 Square Pennies are extremely rare. The Type 4 would become available to collectors, once in a decade and is by far the rarest of those dated 1919. The Type 5 and Type 6 Square Pennies would be seen on the market perhaps once every five years. The Type 3 with its unique design would be seen on the market perhaps once every two years. The popularity of the Type 3 becomes immediately obvious when you look at these numbers. A collector still has to wait two years for a Type 3 Square Penny ... but that's better than waiting for ten!

Photo shown above. The 1919 Type 6 Square Penny, a superb FDC, almost proof-like.

Sadly, in 1921 and after three years of testing, the scheme fell apart. The response to Australia’s square coinage was poor with widespread public resistance to change and people generally rejecting the small size of the coins.

However, the final decision not to proceed seems to have been based mainly on another consideration – the large number of vending machines then in operation requiring a circular coin.

The Square Pennies that remain today are relics of our past, and the sentiment that they stir up in the current market is collector sentiment, driven by their novel shape and their extreme rarity.

The 1930 Penny

The 1930 Penny is a part of Australian folklore. The coin is a national icon and its star status has made it one of Australia’s most valuable coins.

What’s most interesting is that the 1930 Penny stumbled into fame for a review of records at the Melbourne Mint confirms that apart from the six 1930 Pennies struck to proof quality, no pennies were struck for circulation in that year. 

Many theories have been put forward as to the accidental minting of the 1930 Penny. One theory suggests that a few circulating strikes may have been minted at the same time as the Proof version, set aside and inadvertently issued years later by mistake.

The more popular explanation is also the more romantic. Mint policy dictated that the dies were prepared in readiness for the striking of a penny in 1930. The Depression and the lack of economic growth meant that, apart from striking a small number of halfpennies and gold sovereigns, the Melbourne Mint became a tourist attraction. It is thought that a mint guide minted small batches of 1930 pennies for tourists as souvenirs of their visit.

The suspected mintage is about 1500 coins.

The accidental minting of the 1930 Penny was not discovered until the 1940s, dealers responding to the discovery by offering to pay up to 10/- for an example. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the 1930 Penny became a national symbol. Newspapers were instrumental in creating that image, television played a lesser role.

Lists of Australian coins and their market prices and headlines such as “Have you cashed in on Australia’s coin craze yet?” and “A Penny could be worth £500” appeared in the 60s in the daily newspapers. The nation’s rare coin market reacted in a frenzy as thousands cashed in on the opportunity to make big money.

In 1964, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph published a guide to the latest prices on Australian coins. It was the first time that such a list had been published and, while most pennies were fetching a small premium over face value, the 1930 Penny was listed at £50 in Fine condition (today that same coin would be worth more than $20,000).

By 1965, a Fine 1930 Penny had more than doubled in price to £120. By decimal changeover, the price had moved to £255 ($510) and the 1930 Penny had captured the imagination of collectors and non-collectors alike.

Photo shown above. One of the top four 1930 Pennies, presented in Good Extremely Fine.

Before the arrival of decimal currency in 1966, no Australian could look at a penny without glancing at the date, just in case it was the elusive ‘1930’. A product of the Depression, it was everyone’s chance to make big money fast.

The craze was fueled on the one hand by the lure of quick money and on the other by the pressure of the collector market for supplies. Decimal currency changeover posed an imminent and very real danger to coin collectors - the melting down of undiscovered rare pieces. Collectors keen to complete sets of all coins minted in Australia rushed to acquire the elusive pieces at rapidly escalating prices.

We are well into the decimal era now, so no one checks for pennies in schoolyards anymore. But maybe the backs of couches.

For many Australians however, the journey to acquire the 1930 Penny still goes on. It is to this day, Australia's favourite currency collectible.