The Hannibal Head Holey Dollar, struck from a Spanish Silver Dollar minted in 1810 at the Lima Mint, Peru, featuring the imaginary portrait of the reigning monarch (Type 8) and one of two known.

Forty thousand Spanish Silver Dollars were imported by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1812 from the East India Company, the coin to be converted into forty thousand Holey Dollars, the nation's first circulating currency.

The order for the dollars was not date specific, any date would suffice. Ferdinand VI reigned from 1746 to 1759. Charles III, 1759 to 1788. Charles IV was the reigning monarch from 1788 to 1808 and Ferdinand VII endured a disrupted reign, 1808 and again between 1814 and 1833.

And as each king ascended the throne, the design of the dollar was re-created with a re-styled legend and a re-styled portrait to record the new, reigning monarch.

Holey Dollars are classified into types based on the legend and portrait of the monarch depicted on the original Spanish Silver Dollar. 

There are eight distinct types of Holey Dollars, the most readily available type (Type 5) offering collectors a pool of one hundred and twenty-nine Holey Dollars, each coin depicting the legend and portrait of King Charles IV of Spain.

The Hannibal Head Holey Dollar is one of the rarest types (Type 8), and features the legend of the exiled Ferdinand VII and an imaginary portrait of the monarch, referred to as the Hannibal Head.

Only two examples are available to collectors, this being the finest by far.

The ceding of the Spanish throne to Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, became the catalyst for issuing a new silver coinage at the Lima Mint, an event that underpins the numismatic superstar status of the Hannibal Head Holey Dollar.

Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as the strongman of Europe in 1799 leading his armies across Europe deposing monarchs and dominating the entire continent.

At the time Spain was ruled by King Charles IV, an ally of France.

In 1807, Bonaparte’s armies marched through Spain and invaded Portugal. The Spanish monarchy co-operating because it had hoped to secure Southern Portugal for itself.

The alliance between France under Bonaparte and Spain under Charles IV disintegrated the following year when on February 16, 1808, under the pretext of sending reinforcements to the French army occupying Portugal, the French invaded northern Spain.

In March 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte pressured King Charles IV to abdicate the Spanish throne to his son Ferdinand VII.

Ferdinand's reign was short and lasted less than two months. Napoleon Bonaparte duped both Charles IV and Ferdinand VII into ceding the Spanish throne to Bonaparte’s older brother Joseph who assumed rule of the Spanish kingdom on 6 June 1808.

And while the upper echelons of the Spanish Government accepted Ferdinand's abdication and Napoleon's choice of Joseph as King of Spain, the Spanish people did not and uprisings broke out throughout the country.

The Spanish colonial mint of Lima refused to acknowledge Bonaparte as the Spanish King and embarked upon a numismatic protest by continuing to strike their silver dollars with the legend of the imprisoned Ferdinand VII.

Taking their protest one step further, the mint refused to depict Bonaparte's portrait on their coinage, instead using an ‘imaginary’ effigy said to be extremely unflattering! The portrait is universally referred to as the ‘Hannibal Head’ portrait.

The Hannibal Head Holey Dollar (Type 8)

The Hannibal Head Holey Dollar was struck from a Spanish silver dollar minted in 1810 at the Lima Mint, Peru. And features the legend of Ferdinand VII and an imaginary portrait of the reigning monarch.

The Holey Dollar tells a story, and in the context of its story, the Hannibal Head Holey Dollar surpasses all others. The Spanish Silver Dollar from which it was created was especially designed and minted to protest the ascension to the throne of Joseph Bonaparte. The coin is one of two known, this being the finest. 

Price $550,000

The coin was discovered in 1881, near Hobart and presented to Sir John Henry Lefroy, Governor of Van Diemen’s Land.

Of the three hundred surviving Holey Dollars, the Hannibal Head Holey Dollar has the highest public profile. And a much publicised, documented pedigree. Its discovery was written up in Hobart's Mercury Newspaper in 1883 and the Sydney Morning Herald in 1884. But its greatest claim to fame is that a pencil drawing, published in the London Numismatic Chronicle of 1883, is the earliest known drawing of Australia's first coinage.

This is an historic offering of an important Holey Dollar, a coin that plays a pivotal role in Australia's Holey Dollar story. A coin that has also been the highlight of two exhibitions, at the Macquarie Bank in 2013 and the Royal Australian Mint Canberra in 2019.