The New South Wales colonial administration began recalling the holey dollars and dumps and replacing them with sterling coinage from 1822. Henshall left the colony for England in 1817. The final batch was delivered in August of the same year. The first batch of new coins was delivered to Deputy Commissioner-General David Allen on 25 February 1814. He incorporated his 'H' initial into the spray of leaves of the counterstamp design and also inscribed his initial between the words 'FIFTEEN' and 'PENCE' on the dump reverse dies. Henshall stamped the coins with their new value and 'NEW SOUTH WALES 1813'. It seems that a drop hammer, as opposed to a screw press, was used to stamp the coins. Henshall had to experiment with making the necessary machinery, which proved difficult. Macquarie initially anticipated that the task of converting the 40,000 Spanish coins would take three months, but the project took over a year to complete. It was effectively Australia's first mint, with Henshall Australia's first mint master. This building, used by government printer George Howe, was near the corner of Bridge and Loftus streets, by the eastern bank of the Tank Stream. Macquarie provided Henshall with a workshop in the basement of a building known as 'The Factory' to make the holey dollars and dumps. Henshall arrived in the colony and was granted an absolute pardon on 12 September 1812, six months before his sentence was due to end. He provided authorities with information about other forgers and ways of combatting the crime in exchange for an assurance his wife and family would accompany him to New South Wales. In researching the history of Henshall and the holey dollars, numismatic experts Peter Lane and Peter Fleig found that Henshall arrived in the colony of New South Wales after being sentenced in 1805 to seven years transportation for his involvement in counterfeiting. It is believed Macquarie probably learnt about Henshall's metal-working skills by reputation. On an 1811 New South Wales muster list he was listed simply as a 'convict', without reference to his trade. Henshall worked as a metal plater and cutler in England. In doing so, he created the first currency minted in Australia.Ĭonvicted forger William Henshall was chosen to cut and counterstamp these coins. It is likely Macquarie was aware of an earlier system used in another British colony, the West Indies, where captured Spanish dollars were cut and counterstamped so they could not be re-exported.īy having the centres stamped out of these coins, Macquarie distinguished them as belonging to the colony of New South Wales and prevented them from going straight out again. These coins were Spanish silver eight reale coins, known as 'pieces of eight', and they were commonly used as an international trading currency. A special shipment of 40,000 coins arrived in the colony from Madras aboard the Samarang on 26 November 1812. Governor Lachlan Macquarie set out to secure a reliable supply of coins for the colony. King fixed the Spanish dollar at a value of five shillings but many still left the colony as payment for goods arriving on ships from the Americas, Asia and the Cape of Good Hope. This helped to ensure a ready supply of coinage for local trading and stabilised the value of each coin used in the colony. In 1800 Governor Philip Gidley King issued a proclamation giving fixed values to the most common coins in circulation in New South Wales. Much of this coin left the colony as a result of trade with visiting merchant ships. British coins circulated with Dutch guilders and ducats, Indian mohurs and rupees and Portuguese johannas. Foreign coins were common in the early years of the New South Wales colony.
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