The Sir Marcus Clark 1813 Dump

You know what you are getting when you acquire the Sir Marcus Clarke 1813 Dump. It is a coin that promises, and delivers, an experience. In essence, it is a brand. 

The development of a brand starts with an extraordinary quality coin. And then a great collector moves into the picture adding his/her name to the provenance, thereby firming its standing and establishing its reputation.

That great collector was Sydney's Doug Moran (former owner of the Hagley Proof 1930 Penny). The year was 1981 when at Spink Auctions Australia, Moran acquired the Sir Marcus Clark Dump for $17,100 on a pre-sale estimate of $8000. (Barrie Winsor commented in his catalogue notes that bidding was frenetic.)

The coin has never looked back. The demand and the performance has self-perpetuated, consolidating the coin's reputation.

The buyer that pursues a top quality Dump will find the task extremely challenging. It can be years before a premium quality example comes onto the market and decades before the very best becomes available. And that statement is said in the knowledge that there are perhaps 800 Dumps, across all quality levels, available to private collectors.

The Dump with a value of fifteen pence circulated widely in the colony, the extreme wear on most Dumps evidence that they saw considerable use. The Holey Dollar being a higher valued piece, at five shillings, had a narrower band of circulation.

So, while the Dump may seem the diminutive partner of the Holey Dollar, the reality is top quality Dumps have authority. They are extremely rare, in fact far rarer than their holed counterpart in the same quality level. Official Bank of New South Wales records show that in 1820 the bank held 16,680 Holey Dollars and only 5900 Dumps. Considering that 39,910 of each were released into circulation, the figures reflect the greater circulation of the smaller denomination Dump.

Top quality Dumps are extremely rare and highly valued.

No one really knows how the Dump (and the Holey Dollar) were actually manufactured. The documentation as to the method has never been found. It is safe to assume that whatever machinery was employed, it was hand operated as the first steam engine did not become operational in the colony until 1815.

Likely production options were the screw press, drop hammer or hand-held punch with the drop hammer method onto a pre-heated plug generally regarded as the most likely.

There is no doubt that heat was involved in the creation of the Dump. When the disc fell out of the centre of the Spanish Dollar, it still bore the original dollar design of a four quadrant shield, housing a lion and castle in each quadrant. And the shield's cross-bars. High temperatures obliterated the original Spanish Dollar design from most examples.

Those Dumps that retain the original dollar design elements are highly prized. The high temperatures also caused an expansion of the metal disc that fell out of the dollar. The very reason why the Dump is always larger than the hole in the Holey Dollar.

The haphazard, obliquely grooved edge milling found on the dumps indicates that a 'fiddle method' was the final step in the production process whereby a roll of Dumps was rotated under pressure against a grooved cylinder.

While no one knows the method of manufacture, history records that convicted forger and emancipist, William Henshall, was hired to create the nation's first currency, effectively our first Mint Master. He declared his involvement in the creation of the Dump - and the Holey Dollar - by inserting his initial, an 'H' for Henshall, on some - but not all - of the reverse dies of the Dump. And some - but not all - of the Holey Dollar counter stamp dies. 

The Sir Marcus Clark 1813 Dump, Type A/1.  Visually, it is ranked number one for its type. Technically, at Good Extremely Fine, it is ranked number two.

Price: $95,000

Brilliantly preserved, the fields highly reflective with subtle blue-grey toning. Under the eye glass, the coin simply shines, boasting detail that is rarely ever seen.

While a cross on the orb at the top of the crown is a design element of the 1852 Adelaide Pound, who knew that this element was also part of the Dump design?

The snapshot below shows the vertical line (pointer 1) and the right-hand side of the horizontal line (pointer 2) that make up the cross on the orb on the crown. We have seen this level of detail in only one other example.

This is a text-book example of the 1813 Dump.

1. The 1813 Dump circulated widely in the colony, the extreme wear on most Dumps evidence of its extensive use. The average quality Dump is graded at Fine to Good Fine, with this coin at least five grades higher at Good Extremely Fine. (See chart below)

2. Struck with the A/1 dies, the crown is classically well-centred and well struck, the design definition remarkable.

3. William Henshall inserted an 'H' into some (but not all) of the dies used during its striking. The 'H' on the Sir Marcus Clark Dump is strong and three dimensional.

4. The denticles around the edge of the coin are complete, a feature that is seldom seen in even the very best examples. A piece of art without a picture frame is a blank canvas ... and the denticles act like a picture frame to the coin and give it substance.

5. The oblique milling around the edge is fully evident. (The edge milling was used as deterrent against clipping whereby the unscrupulous shaved off slivers of silver, reducing the silver content of the Dump. And making a small profit on the side.)

6. While the Holey Dollar clearly shows that it is one coin struck from another, in a less obvious way so too can the Dump. The design detail of the original Spanish Dollar from which this Dump was created is extensive. The castle, the lion’s tail, the central oval containing the fleur de lis and the cross bars in the shield. All evident. We refer to it as the under-type and it is not always present. Its existence re-affirms the origins of the Dump and is highly prized.

7. This Dump shows a 'dot' above the '3' in the date '1813'. This is almost certainly due to a pit in the die and only occurs in those coins struck with the type A/1 dies. And even then it is identified in very few type A/1 examples.