Holey dollars
The holey dollar (holey: English for holey ), also called ring dollar , was the first independently minted coin, which was introduced in the former British penal colony of New South Wales , one of today's states in Australia , in 1813. Since it was founded in 1788, like many others, the colony had no currency of its own and British coins were scarce and the Spanish real dominated world trade. With the introduction of this coin, the governor Lachlan Macquarie solved economic and political problems at the time, because rum had become independent as a means of payment outside of colonial regulations through the influence of the colonial military, the New South Wales Corps .
Coin shortage
The colony, which was established after reaching the First Fleet in 1788 , suffered for a long time from a shortage of British coinage, which hampered economic activities. Spanish silver coins , the Spanish reales, were widespread and the rate for a Spanish silver coin in New South Wales was five shillings . But even the Spanish silver coins could not eliminate the shortage of means of payment, as trade developed and merchandise came to the colonies mainly via ship transport and the silver coins went outside the country when the ships left the port.
Because of this, a barter of goods for goods developed. Other foreign gold, silver and copper coins also circulated with fixed exchange rates, but in addition to these and British means of payment, rum existed as a currency in the forerunner states of today's Australia .
Economy and Politics
Originally, the governor Arthur Phillip had banned the free trade in rum and placed it under state control. This controlled trade was loosened by Francis Grose and so it came about that rum became increasingly popular as an unofficial means of payment. The officers of the New South Wales Corps , also known as Rum Corps , used their position and their wealth, bought up the rum and then exchanged it for goods and other everyday items. From this profit they acquired large estates. In the early years of the colony there was a food shortage and shipments were required. In 1793, a year when food shortages began in New South Wales, stills were imported and the onset of rum distillation subsequently exacerbated the shortage of grain. Because the cultivation of sugar cane for rum production evidently did not make sufficient progress in the expansion of cultivation areas for food, especially for wheat.
The British government charged William Bligh , who was in command of the Bounty during the mutiny , to remedy this and other abuses. Bligh had been arrested by the New South Wales Corps during the Rum Rebellion in 1808 - the only successful armed uprising against an Australian government - and was now supposed to stop the flourishing rum trade and expropriate the lands acquired irregularly as a result. But only Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who came to Bligh on behalf of the British government to New South Wales, better controlled the rum trade because he licensed it more effectively. But he, too, was only able to finance the construction of the hospital in Sydney because the donors had been given the monopoly on the import of rum in return. The contract allowed the import of 45,000 (204,574 liters) and later over 60,000 and 65,000 gallons (295,496 liters) of rum, respectively . Because of this convention, the hospital building in Sydney is derisively called the Rum Hospital .
Macquarie applied for coins from Great Britain, but the British government did not comply and when the merchant ship Samarang docked in Port Jackson on November 26, 1812 with 10,000 Spanish silver coins on board, he decided to purchase these coins and use them as a means of payment.
Holey dollars and dump
Lachlan Macquarie had a piece punched out of the Spanish coins in the middle, the so-called dump . This created two new coins, the ring-shaped holey dollar valued at five shillings and the dump valued at one shilling and three pence , or a quarter of a holey dollar. With this move, Macquarie overcame the coin shortage and doubled the number of coins in circulation. Macquarie delegated the manufacture of the coins to convict William Hershell, a convicted counterfeiter in Great Britain.
Macquarie increased the colonial administration's revenue by doubling the coins by 25%, thereby ensuring that the coins circulated and the outflow of coins no longer hindered the domestic economy. In addition, he had only paid four shillings and nine pence for the Spanish silver dollar. In 1813 , Macquarie had New South Wales inscribed in the holey dollar and in the dump . In 1813 these coins were put into circulation.
When Great Britain was able to supply the colony with coins, the first holey dollars and dumps were collected in 1822 and exchanged for British coins. On September 30, 1829, Governor Thomas Brisbane declared that the holey dollar would no longer be accepted as a means of payment.
Other coinage
In numerous British colonies in the Caribbean , dollars and dumps, which were not called holey dollars , were produced from Spanish silver coins . They were the British colonies in British Guiana , Dominica , Grenada , St. Vincent , Tobago and Trinidad .
About 300 different coinage of these dollars are known.
Holey dollars today
It is estimated that 85 copies of the Holey Dollar from 1813 are in museums or collections. One of the coins was bought at auction in 2007 for £ 61,462.50.
The largest Australian investment bank , Macquarie Bank , has the symbolized Holey Dollar in its logo .
In 1988, Australia released holey dollar and dump silver coins in sets of two as a souvenir. The two coins are made to fit perfectly so that the two coins can be put back together again. The 1988 edition shows a rainbow snake and on the reverse the British Queen Elizabeth II. In 1989 and 1990 two further coin editions with different motifs were brought out.
The Australian rum manufacturer Ministry of Rum (Rum Ministry) has applied a logo in the shape of the holey dollar to its rum bottles .
Web links
- Images of the Holey Dollar on Google.de
- Australian rum brand Holey Dollar Cask Strength Platinum Coin Rum
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Sl Collektors Coin site ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed September 28th
- ↑ Arthur Phillip on Australina Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved October 20, 2010.
- ^ Francis Grose on Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved October 20, 2010
- ↑ Proof of histories rum rebellion on smh.com.au. . Retrieved October 19, 2010
- ↑ Rum Rebellion on historzaustralia.org.au . Retrieved October 19, 2010
- ^ Wentworth, D'Arcy (1762-1827) Online Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved October 25, 2010
- ^ Rum Hospital 1811 - 1854 ( Memento from October 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved October 26, 2010
- ↑ Sydney's First Permanant Hospital known "The Rum Hospital on hawkesburyhistory.org.au ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice.. Retrieved October 20, 2010
- ↑ The Sydney Gazette of November 26, 1812 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed September 28th
- ↑ The Holey Dollar on mayquarie.com/de, the largest financial services provider in Australia ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 24, 2010
- ↑ Australia's First Million Dollar Penny and First Coin on coinnews.net.Retrieved September 28
- ↑ Images on silber-unzen.de . Accessed September 28th
- ^ Information from the Ministry of Rum in Australia . Retrieved September 28, 2010
