Coins and Australia - Introduction - Australasian Tokens and Coins - Dr. Arthur Andrews

Australasian Tokens and Coins

Introduction

In these days it is hard to picture to oneself the conditions which prevailed in Australia at the beginning 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 known 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 Dependency 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 silver 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 difficulties of those requiring small change can easily be understood.

In 1797, the firm of Boulton and Sons, of Birmingham, was employed to produce 500 tons of the thick-rimmed copper coins so much in evidence fifty years ago.

Of these it is shown by a despatch of Governor King 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 1 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 halfpenny. 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 fixed 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 by 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 cash, and a man who had bought a farm appeared at the Treasury with no less than £480 worth 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 systein oi barter, so many pounds of this for so many of that, and where goods were not forthcoming, notes of hand or I.0.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 thai 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 Birmingham to work unless the responsibility of a heavier penalty 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 aimost the only circulating medium.

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 much 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 Sixpences, Shillings, and Half-crowns be also struck here and issued by the Government.

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 are 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
  • One piece of 50 farthings or 1s ½d
  • One piece of 100 farthings or 2s 1d

Ten of these will be twenty shillings and tinpence, 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.

Forgeries of these notes were plentifui, and persons having no resources did not hesitate to take advantage of conditions and scattered their paper money wherever they could get it accepted, regardless of their inability to redeem their promises. Endless litigation was the result, and so great was the distress arising from the depreciated value of these notes that in 1807, the Governor issued a Proclamation making all paper payable in cash at the established value of current coins.

There was one coin which had almost universal circulation throughout the world at this time, and often changed hands at a considerable premium. This was the Spanish Dollar or Piece of 8 Reals. The enormous output of silver from the mines of South America was coined at various mints into this handy form, and the purity of the metal combined with the millions issued soon rendered them the standard of exchange between various countries. Still, even these were subject to fluctuations in value as that of the metal rose or fell, and in 1812 they were generally freely taken at a premium of one shilling above their face value, and hence could not be retained in Australia, where the value was fixed at a lower rate.

In many of the British colonies a custom had arisen of so mutilating these pieces before circulating them locally that they would be worthless for export. Judg ing from a despatch by. Governor King to the Home Government, dated 20th December, 1804, something of the kind had been attempted here. He writes thus :

The fallacy of endeavouring to keep Spanish dollars or any sterling coin in circulation within the Colony has long been proved, even when the former has been cut into eight or ten parts, as these coins are never seen after they are paid away.

There is nothing to show that this was an official action, nor is there any reference to the practice of most of the other Colonies of countermarking in some way even the sinallest divisions of the dollar.

When, therefore, Governor Macquarie contemplated taking action to relieve the situation, it is not surprising to find that he decided to not only mutilate the dollar, but to entirely change the appearance of the pieces by stamping the value at which they were to circulate on them, and obliterating, as regards the smaller parts, all sign of their origin.

His opportunity arrived when, in November, 1812, the Sloop of War Samarang arrived with £10,000 worth of dollars on board, and he was quick to take advantage of it.

Hence the Holey or Ring Dollars and Dumps so often mentioned in early Australian literature, and which will be more fully described later.

By Proclamation, Macquarie fixed 30th September, 1813, as the date on which these were to be issued and become legal tender, but they did not actually circulate till early in the following year.

He, at the same time, by Proclamation, forbade the issue of paper money for any lesser sum than half-a-crown, and also decreed that from that time all transactions were to be deemed to have been made in these silver pieces, which were then declared legal tender. The value of the Ring or Holey Dollar was fixed at five shillings, and the Dump at fifteen pence, as marked on them. This gave the Govern- ment a good profit on the transaction. The limit of copper money as legal tender was also reduced to fifteen pence.

Though this Proclamation appears to have been effective in New South Wales, we find that in Van Dieman's Land, as Tasmania was then called, there was little, if any, restriction, and as late as 1826, paper notes for such small amounts as 3d., 6d., and is. were common.

The premium on copper coins remained unchanged till December, 1817, when, in deference to the opinions expressed at a public meeting, the Governor ordered that on and after 7th December the officials at the Government Stores should receive depreciated copper coin at upon and after the rate of an advance of 50 per cent. on the English sterling value. It was required that all copper should be presented before 1st January, 1818, from which time all copper coins were to circulate only at the value of the same in England. It was, however, also required that all copper presented should be dated prior to 1800, when it was first issued in the Colony at a premium. The limit of legal tender of copper coins was fixed at £5 again.

Spanish Dollars continued to be the principal basis of exchange, and the Bank of New South Wales issued notes on this basis as late as 1822, and 1823. They were then superseded by large amounts of silver received from England, where the coinage had been greatly improved, especially in quantity. The Dollars soon fell into disrepute, and all transactions from that time were in pounds, shillings, and pence. It was also declared illegal to issue any note for less than £1.

In 1823, we note the appearance of the first Australian Token. It was issued in Hobart by the firm of Macintosh and Degraves, carrying on business at what was known as The Cascade Saw Mill. It was the size and value of the English shilling, and is now very rarely seen. Probably but few were made.

No reference to this piece has yet been found in contemporary publications, and one cannot help feeling some surprise that the example was not followed, as the abundant copper issues of tokens by tradesmen in England must have been familiar to most of the residents of the Colony.

A reference to the press of the time shows that though much more coin was circulating, the system of barter had by no means passed away, especially in Tasmania.

In the Hobart Town Gazette of 1822-23, advertisements are found of prices at which Spanish Dollars will be accepted at stores, generally at a premium on the face value. In others, wheat or other produce will be taken in exchange for goods.

In the Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser of March, 1826, a weather-board house is advertised for sale, wheat or approved bills taken in exchange. A little later a storekeeper advises Cash, clean wheat, or well-fed green hams taken in payment. Another instance is A substantial brick house for sale. Wheat oats, barley, sheep or cattle in exchange. Many others could be quoted such as Books of Promissory Notes. They will be found useful to innkeepers, &c., and equally useful to travellers.

In its issue of th August, 1826, we find :

During the present week a number of Spanish Dollars cut into five parts, have made their appearance, each being considered worth one shilling. We know not whether they have been cut by sanction of the Government or by some private individual, but we are convinced that Governor Macquarie's plan of stamping the dollar is infinitely much better than the present system of cutting, which, in our opinion, opens the door to fraud. There is machinery in this Colony capable of performing the operation of stamping; and there are persons fully competent to make the dies. We would, therefore, again recommend the Government to issue a money which could not be taken out of the island in order that people may benefit by it.

From this time larger consignments of coin appear to have been received, and many persons arriving as intended settlers brought out their capital in cash. Between 1830, and 1840, speculation ran riot through the Colony, and everything rose enormously in price. Drought affecting the back country soon resulted in great lessening of stock values, and a corresponding wave of distress passed over the community. The population of New South Wales was increasing rapidly in spite of large settlements in the other Colonies, and again (1844, to 1846), we find paper money beginning to circulate for small amounts, though not to the extent experienced in earlier years.

In 1849, for the first time we hear of Copper Tokens, and the honor of priority belongs to Melbourne. In the Melbourne Argus of 20th October, 1849, the following appears:

To obviate the extreme inconvenience occasioned by the scarcity of coppers, particularly by the grocers, who have not unfrequently to pay a premium of from sixpence to a shilling a pound for their Saturday night's supply, Mr. Councillor Annand has had coined at Birmingham a large supply of penny pieces, having on one side the figure of Britannia, and on the obverse the inscription, ANNAND, SMITH & Co. family grocers Melbourne. Mr. F. Gardner, of Melbourne, quoting the above, comments:

Thus we have in addition to the fixing of the date of issue the place of origin of the coins and concisely the reason for the issue of all tokens.

With the close of the first half of the century, business had generally recovered from the period of depression, and a swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction was greatly strengthened by the discovery of gold. For a few years money became so plentiful, wages were so high, and all produce sold so quickly at very remunerative prices that the want of small change was not so urgent. In fact, it was the plethora of gold that became troublesome. The banks and others who bought the metal from the diggers rarely gave full value, and it is on record that in 1852, only £2 15s. per oz. was paid on Ballarat. Suggestions were made for converting it into marketable shape, and the South Australian Government was the first to adopt definite means. They not only issued coins of the value of £1, but also converted any amount brought to them into ingots stamped with weight and value in standard gold. Agitation commenced for the establishment of Mints in Australia, and this was conceded in 1853, and completed in regard to Sydney in 1855.

In 1852, the first dated copper tokens were issued in Sydney by Peek and Campbell, who had them inade locally by J. C. Thornthwaite, as will be more fully described later. After this such issues became very common, many undated. Silver pieces of the value of thiee pence were also largely issued by Thornthwaite and Hogarth, Erichsen & Co., of Sydney. Each year increasing numbers of fresh issues were made in the various Australian Colonies and New Zealand, the climax being reached in 1862, when no less than thirty-three firms or individuals adopted the practice, in many instances issuing several varieties, and in one case (Thomas Stokes) no less than fifty dated pieces of different design.

Tokens which when first issued were decidedly a blessing to the community soon became a nuisance, and steps were taken to stop the issue in the various Colonies.

After 1860, the extensive and lighter bronze issue from the Imperial Mint soon replaced the cumbrous pieces previously in iise, and within a few years all tokens were declared illegal. Many were taken by the Governments in exchange for the new coins, and many more melted down for the metal they contained, which was generally very pure in quality.

The issues from the Local Mints will be described in due course, and also the Commonwealth pieces commencing in 1910.

Many checks and medalets have been used from time to time by various establishments, but practically exclusively for use in the issuer's place of business or for pure advertisement. Such are the well-known Auckland Ferry, Wairarapa Farmers' Association, and Nelson Brewery zinc pieces of New Zealand, or the Achilles King and variously surcharged Hosic issues in Victoria, and many others. These not having been issued for circulation as small change, have not been taken into consideration in the following pages.

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