Holey dollar
Encyclopedia
Holey dollar is the name given to coins
used in the early history of two British
settlements: Prince Edward Island
and New South Wales
. The middle was punched out of Spanish dollar
s, creating two parts: a small coin, known as a "dump" in Australia, and a "holey dollar".
government minted a large silver
coin which through wide circulation became known as the Spanish dollar
. Around the end of the 18th century, this coin was in constant circulation in Eastern Canada
and the United States
. The value of the coin varied in different centers but was highest in Halifax
. Using this knowledge, whenever the merchants of Prince Edward Island (PEI) secured them, they sent them to Halifax, to take advantage of the higher rate. The resulting shortage of money in PEI prompted the governor
to gather in all the Spanish Dollars he could and have their centers punched out. Both the central plug and rims were stamped with a sunburst. The punched centers passed as shilling
s and the outer rims as five-shilling pieces. The mutilated coins were thereafter no longer acceptable outside of the island, so as a consequence, became the official currency there.
was founded in Australia
in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage. Governor Lachlan Macquarie
took the initiative of using £
10,000 in Spanish dollar
s sent by the British
government to produce suitable coins in a similar manner to that described above. These coins to the value of 40,000 Spanish dollars came on the 26 November 1812 on the merchant ship the Samarang
from Madras, via the Honourable East India Company. To stop them from leaving the colony the centres were punched out to create two different issues of coins (Pitt 2000).
There was a central plug (known as a dump) which was valued at 15 pence
and was restruck with a new design (a crown on the obverse, the denomination on the reverse), whilst the dollars received an overstamp around the hole ("New South Wales 1813" on the obverse, "Five Shillings" on the reverse). The holey dollar became the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia.
From 1822 these coins began to be recalled and replaced by sufficient sterling
coinage (Pitt 2000). There are estimated to be 350 Holey dollars and 1500 dumps remaining in circulation today (Mira and Noble 1989, as cited in Pitt 2000 p. 9).
Macquarie Bank uses the holey dollar as their logo to represent ingenuity and financial knowledge.
used the same method for producing coins from Spanish dollars. They include British Guiana
, Dominica
, Grenada
, Saint Vincent
, Tobago
and Trinidad
. The holed coins and plugs circulated alongside various other coins made by cutting Spanish and Spanish colonial coins into sections. These coinages were denominated in either shillings and pence or bits, worth nine pence.
See Dominican dollar
, Grenadan dollar
and Saint Vincent dollar
.
's Silver Jubilee. In 1978, another issue of the Hutt River Province Principality's $1 coins was issued. This has no commemorative inscription. These coins are also known to numismatists as holey dollars as well.
COinS
ContextObjects in Spans, commonly abbreviated COinS, is a method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages. This allows bibliographic software to publish machine-readable bibliographic items and client reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. The...
used in the early history of two British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
settlements: Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. The middle was punched out of Spanish dollar
Spanish dollar
The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, of approximately 38 mm diameter, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler...
s, creating two parts: a small coin, known as a "dump" in Australia, and a "holey dollar".
Prince Edward Island
From 1497, the SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
government minted a large silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
coin which through wide circulation became known as the Spanish dollar
Spanish dollar
The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, of approximately 38 mm diameter, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler...
. Around the end of the 18th century, this coin was in constant circulation in Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The value of the coin varied in different centers but was highest in Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
. Using this knowledge, whenever the merchants of Prince Edward Island (PEI) secured them, they sent them to Halifax, to take advantage of the higher rate. The resulting shortage of money in PEI prompted the governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
to gather in all the Spanish Dollars he could and have their centers punched out. Both the central plug and rims were stamped with a sunburst. The punched centers passed as shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s and the outer rims as five-shilling pieces. The mutilated coins were thereafter no longer acceptable outside of the island, so as a consequence, became the official currency there.
Australia
When the colony of New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
was founded in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage. Governor Lachlan Macquarie
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...
took the initiative of using £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
10,000 in Spanish dollar
Spanish dollar
The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, of approximately 38 mm diameter, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler...
s sent by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
government to produce suitable coins in a similar manner to that described above. These coins to the value of 40,000 Spanish dollars came on the 26 November 1812 on the merchant ship the Samarang
Atholl class corvette
The Atholl-class corvettes were a series of fourteen Royal Navy sailing sixth-rate post ships built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy...
from Madras, via the Honourable East India Company. To stop them from leaving the colony the centres were punched out to create two different issues of coins (Pitt 2000).
There was a central plug (known as a dump) which was valued at 15 pence
British One Penny coin (pre-decimal)
The English Penny, originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 g pure silver, includes the penny introduced around the year 785 by King Offa of Mercia. However, his coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period, and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had gone before it, which were...
and was restruck with a new design (a crown on the obverse, the denomination on the reverse), whilst the dollars received an overstamp around the hole ("New South Wales 1813" on the obverse, "Five Shillings" on the reverse). The holey dollar became the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia.
From 1822 these coins began to be recalled and replaced by sufficient sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
coinage (Pitt 2000). There are estimated to be 350 Holey dollars and 1500 dumps remaining in circulation today (Mira and Noble 1989, as cited in Pitt 2000 p. 9).
Macquarie Bank uses the holey dollar as their logo to represent ingenuity and financial knowledge.
Similar coins
Although not known as "holey dollars", several British colonies in the CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
used the same method for producing coins from Spanish dollars. They include British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
, Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
, Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
, Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
, Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
and Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. The holed coins and plugs circulated alongside various other coins made by cutting Spanish and Spanish colonial coins into sections. These coinages were denominated in either shillings and pence or bits, worth nine pence.
See Dominican dollar
Dominican dollar
The history of currency in the British colony of Dominica closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the...
, Grenadan dollar
Grenadan dollar
The history of currency in the British colony of Grenada closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. Even though Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704 brought the gold standard to the West Indies, silver pieces of eight continued to form a major portion of the...
and Saint Vincent dollar
Saint Vincent dollar
The history of currency in the British colony of Saint Vincent closely follows that of the British Eastern Caribbean territories in general. As such, it should not be considered in isolation...
.
Principality of Hutt River
The Principality of Hutt River issued a commemorative $1 coin in 1977 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's Silver Jubilee. In 1978, another issue of the Hutt River Province Principality's $1 coins was issued. This has no commemorative inscription. These coins are also known to numismatists as holey dollars as well.