How Are Survival Numbers Estimated For The Early Australian Coins?

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 1,094
gxseries Pillar of the Community Australia 3831 Posts	Posted 03/03/2025 9:22 pm 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 Coinage was withdrawn in 1829 however this may have survived a lot longer in Tasmania.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.html 1852 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-victoria After all that... how are survival rate estimated? Are they based on how often they appear in the market? My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseries My numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htm Regularly updated at least once a month. Report this Post to the Staff

bobby131313 Forum Dad United States 24147 Posts	Posted 03/14/2025 2:56 pm Anyone? Shop CCF Members on eBay. Report this Post to the Staff
wwwww Pillar of the Community Australia 541 Posts	Posted 07/18/2025 02:21 am The Holey Dollar figure is based on a count of all examples that have surfaced conducted by Mira & Noble. The Dump figure is just an estimate based on how much more frequently they appear on the market. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16806 Posts	Posted 07/18/2025 04:05 am Holey Dollars are "easier" to count as they were struck using "used" (rather than freshly-minted) Spanish dollars; this means that each undertype-year only has a few surviving examples, or perhaps just one example, making their prior sale records easier to track. The Mira and Noble catalogue of existing examples illustrates and records the provenance of every single surviving coin both in museum collections and private collections, sorted by undertype date. I think only a half-dozen or so never-before-seen additional examples have popped up since that book was published back in the 1980s, so the "survivor count" can be taken mostly literally. Once you have a coin like the Holey Dollar where the absolute number of survivors is "known", then you can use this fixed data point to calibrate the relative rarity of other items, such as the Adelaide Pounds and Dumps. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
gxseries Pillar of the Community Australia 3831 Posts	Posted 07/18/2025 10:27 am Thank you for your replies wwwww and Sap. I think the estimate for the holey seems to be about right. I'd heard a wild story from a dealer that he knew a person that was extremely lucky to find a holey from a riverbed (!!!). There may be a bit higher number of dumps that survived. On the other hand, I think the survival numbers for the Adelaide Pound may be higher than the estimated 200-300. That's supposedly as scarce as the holey but yet they appear in the market way more often! Had a look at noble site - really good archive record Holey, Dump https://www.noble.com.au/auctions/s...g=&q=&e=&p=1 Adelaide Pound https://www.noble.com.au/auctions/s...rch/&p=1&c=5 Would be interesting to see if a project can be setup to keep record of unique holey, dump and Adelaide pound. I'm sure there may be some that appeared in the market for sale a few times. My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseries My numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htm Regularly updated at least once a month. Report this Post to the Staff
Basil Pillar of the Community Australia 1039 Posts	Posted 07/18/2025 7:46 pm I think wwwww is Walter,good to see him posting and sharing his knowledge. Report this Post to the Staff
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