Miami Valley Coin Club

1813 Australian Holey Dollar & Dump

Two hundred years ago, Australia stamped its first distinctive Australian coins. The NSW Government took 40,000 Spanish silver dollars (equal to £10,000) and punched a hole in the center to create their coinage, using both the holed coin (dubbed the holey dollar, equal to 5 shillings) and the punched out center (known as the dump, equal to 15 pence).

The official coiner was William Henshall. He was a former convict who had been transported to Great Britain’s penal colony, Australia, for of all things counterfeiting Bank of England dollars. His sentence was 7 years transportation.

It was supposed to take three months to accomplish but ended up taking twelve. The 1813 “dollars” didn’t enter into circulation until 1814. While Henshall was working in Sydney, the same idea was going on in Prince Edward Island, Canada. So there are also holey dollars and dumps from Canada.

NSW began recalling holey dollars and dumps in 1822 and the coinage was finally demonetized 1n 1829. They were melted down and sold to the Bank of England as bullion.

In 2013, the Royal Perth Mint issued a commemorative set of holey dollars and dumps, made out of aluminum and bronze, and valued at 1 dollar.

Today, there are about 300 holey dollars and 800 dumps that are original and survive.