Been reading articles about the early Australian coins. Pretty fascinating history!
For instance the early coins as follow:
Origins of the 1813 holey and dump coinage is very interesting. To create a new coinage, NSW governor commissioned a convict (!) to issue the first official Australian coin. This was done by counterstamp or overstrike over Spanish reales.
1813 dump and holey mintage was reported to be 39,910 out of 40,000. 90 were of poor quality and were not issued.
This was recalled in 1822 to be replaced with British coinage. Coinage was withdrawn in 1829 however this may have survived a lot longer in Tasmania. Records suggest 34,058 holey were redeemed.
From various website sources
Dump estimated survival is around 1000 - 2000.
Holey estimated survival is around 300 - 350.
https://www.migrationheritage.nsw.g...p/index.html1852 Adelaide pound
Origin of this coin came from gold rush in Mount Alexander, Victoria in November 1851. Back then there wasn't the various state divide such as Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
To address a critical shortage of coinage and having a lot of gold, the Adelaide government assay office decided decided issue its own gold coins - without the approval from London! Apparently the situation was so dire that a new legislation about the new issue of coinage was one of the fastest to be approved. (Today's world would have lots of red tape)
Two varieties are known - type I and II.
The first type is rumoured to have a survival rate of 20 - 50 out of possibly 100 struck. This issue was quickly replaced with type II due to a die crack issue
The second type mintage is 24,648.
While this was a proactive move to address the critical shortage of coins - this particular coin had one issue. It was too generous as the metal value was worth more than face value. It is not know how many were melted down. Some sites claim that only 200-300 survived.
https://adelaideaz.com/articles/aus...rom-victoriaAfter all that... how are survival rate estimated? Are they based on how often they appear in the market?
Posted 03/03/2025 9:22 pm
