Australasian Tokens and Coins; a Handbook by Dr. Arthur Andrews

Dr.ggmj9^^DR^5 lii THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES IN MEMORY OF ERNEST DAWSON 1882-1947 GIFT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF NEIV SOUTH WAILES a AUSTRALASIAN TOKENS AND COINS. *1515— Public Library of New South Wales THE niTCHELL LIBRARY rOUNDATION Australasian TOKENS AND COINS A HANDBOOK BY Dr. ARTHUR ANDREWS President of the Australian Nua\isa\atic Society Issue^i 6y tf\e 'trustees of tFve J^itcfxell Library, <6ySr\ey SYDNEY WILLIAM APPLEGATE GULLICK, GOVERNMENT PRINTER 1921 Preface, Thh hook xvas intended in the first place to he a catalogue of the Australian tokens and coins in the Mitchell Library. Its scope was enlarged to include descriptio)is of all known varieties, with a hrief historical introduction. The Trustees desire that very cordial acknowledgments should be made to Mr. A. F. Basset Hull for information freely drawn from a manuscript on the subject compiled hy him and Dr. W. E. Roth nearly thirty years ago. T/ie typescript of this -work is in the possessio)i of Mr. William Di.xson, of Killara, and was courteously loaned hy him in order that Dr. Andrews slwuld utilise tite data collected hy its authors. Mr. Hull and Dr. Roth were able to procure first- hand information from individuals who fiad been actually employed in the production of Aiistralasian tokens, and tJiis, with the historical data in tlieir compilation, made it of value in the preparation of the present work. The Trustees desire to tJiank Mr. William Di.xson, wlio has rendered considerable assistance, not only in placing tfie above-mentioned typescript and the manuscript catalogue of his own coin collection at Dr. Andrews' disposal, but in lending specimens for illustration xchen the Library pieces icere not in good condition. Dr. Andreii'S desires also to thank the many other collectors and corre- spondents wfw fiave ungrudgingly given information and encouragement. The order of sections and numbering were decided hy the arrangement of specime)is in the Library cabinet. The Mitcfiell Collection is shown by asterisks against the numbers. Tfw remainder are catalogued front the colhctions of the .Australian ^Dlseunl. Mr. William Di.xson, Mr. Alfred Chitty, Dr. Yelland, attd Dr. Andrews. The Trustees are anxious to obtain specimens of these desiderata. I desire to record the Trustees' appreciation of the work of the compiler in arranging and cataloguing tlieir coins and tokens, and of his care and entJtusiasm in miking this fiandbook so complete. The thanks of the Trustees are also due to the Government Printer, Mr. IT. .1. Gullick, for suggestions concerjiing its format. W. H. IFOULD. Principal Librarian and Secretary. Introduction IN these days it is hard to picture to oneself the conditions which prevailed in Australia at the beginnin,!,^ of the last century; but no description of the Tokens and Coins of this Commonwealth would be complete without some reference to the difficulties those in authority had to contend with and the steps taken to ameliorate their conditions and relieve their inconveniences. The scanty records of the time afford but little reliable information ; but there is no doubt that almost as soon as the Settlement was first formed the scarcity of Coin was severely felt. For many years before the end of the eighteenth century it is kno\\Ti that the issues of the Royal Mint in London were far below the requirements of the Home Country alone ; and it will be easy, therefore, to understand that a Depend- ency so far removed from the seat of Empire would suffer even more inconvenience. Such was the dearth of coin in England, and so greatly were the few shillings and sixpences circulating depreciated by wear and tear, that the Government was compelled to take steps to remedy matters. In 1787, shillings and sixpences, now known as " wire money," to the value of £55,000 (Plate 60, Nos. 818 & 819) were issued, and for a time relieved the situation. However, the very quality and weight of the new issue being so much superior to those previously in use defeated the object, most of them soon finding their way to the " melting pot." The only other British siher coins circulating were crowns and half-crowns, and these were very scarce. Of less value, there were only halfpence and farthings of copper, no copper pence being made before 1797. The ditftculties of those requiring small change can easily be understiHul. In 1797, the firm of l>ouUon and Sons, of Birmingham, was employed to produce 500 tons of the tliick-rimnuHl copjier coins so much in evidence fifty years ago. *I5I5-A 2 AUSTRALASIAN TOKENS AND COINS. Of these it is shown by a despatch of Governor Iving that £1,200 worth were sent to New South Wales in 1800, and the Governor, hoping to better alleviate local troubles, issued a Proclamation making them current in the Colony and fixing the value of the i oz. piece (the penny) at twopence (No. 821, Plate 61), and making them legal tender to the amount of /5. Early writers say that at the same time the value of the halfpenny was raised to one penny and the farthing to a halfpenn5^ It is also understood that the 2 oz. or twopenny piece (No. 820, Plate 61) was circulated as fourpence. The Proclamation, however, says nothing about these. At the same time (November, 1800) the Governor fi.xed the amount at which various foreign coins which were current should be accepted'; generally above their face value. This Act was decidedly unpopular, as it entirely prevented the export of these coins except at considerable loss; the size and weight of the copper coins was also a great inconvenience. There soon arose a tendency for them to get into few hands, as shown In' a transaction which is said to have taken place within a year or two. All land purchased from the Government at that time had to be paid for in flash, and a man who had bought a farm appeared at the Treasury with no less than ^^480 wortli of these coins in payment. As they were only legal tender to the amount of £5, the official refused to accept them. The man, not to be outdone, took his dray into the next street and soon appeared with an instalment of £5, which had to be accepted. In a few minutes he appeared again with another, and repeated the process till the official became tired of the game and accepted the lot. However this may have been, there is plenty of evidence that at that time nearly all transactions were carried out on a system of barter, so many pounds of tins for so many of that, and where goods were not forthcoming, notes of hand or I.O.U.'s of often very doubtful value had to be accepted. Most of these paper issues were made payable in currency, as the various foreign coins and local paper were called, and shortly we find that tradesmen, having given these notes, when requested to redeem them declined to do so except by consolidating them into larger notes or giving those of other issuers in place, as these were all known as " Currency." In 1803, Governor King wrote to the Home Government :^ " The preparation of a peculiar coin of the intrinsic value of Sixpence, but to pass here as One Shilling, to the amount of £1,000 would be advantageous, but the advantage of this to Masters of ships might set the people of Bir- mingham to work unless the responsibihty of a heavier penaty than exists now for the importation of copper was ordained." The following extract from the Official Records of 1803 -1804, which is in the Mitchell Library, comments on the conditions thus :— " It appears that Spirituous Liquors are the real measure of property, these ." and the Notes of Individuals almost the only circulating medium . • AUSTRALASIAN TOKEXS AND COINS. 3 " The Colony at present possesses no coin but that struck by Mr. Boulton and sent out in 1800, its amount is . and it consists of Farthings, Halfpence, and Pence, each of which is issued at double its English nominal value, which has given an opportunity to the Birmingham Coiners to exercise their ingenuity, and they have already nuu h increased the number of these pieces in circulation . ." " In order to accommodate the Colony properly it is proposed first of all to call in the present Copper currency, and reissue it at its English value ; next to send out an additional stock of Copper Coin of the same denominations; and, thirdly, that Tokens representing Sixj)ences, Shillings, and Half-crowns be also struck here and issued by the Govc-rnment. " As the issue of a circulating medium will in this case be made for the first time, it will be easy to arrange it on a decimal scale in order to induce the people in due time to keep their accounts in Decimal Numbers instead of Pounds, Shillings, and Pence . " Few Englishmen arc aware how easily this may be done by assuming the Farthing as the Monetary Unit, in which case the following set of Tokens will answer this important purpose : — One piece of 20 farthings or 5d. 50 ,, IS. oM. ,, 100 ,, 2s. id. Ten of these will be twenty shillings and ttn pence, very near a Guinea." The difficulty of retaining coin in the country was increased by the custom of ships' captains of the time. When they arrived in port they generally opened a shop for the sale of their cargo, and, of course, took care to have in exchange something more tangible than the current promissory notes.

Load more