Holey dollar and dump

The holey dollar and dump are paired coins created by punching out the centre of Spanish silver dollars (eight-real pieces) to provide a local circulating medium. In the British colony of New South Wales, they constituted the first official currency struck specifically for the territory. Governor Lachlan Macquarie initiated the project using 40,000 Spanish dollars that arrived aboard HMS Samarang from Madras in late 1812, commissioning the convicted forger William Henshall to pierce the coins and counterstamp both the outer rings and inner plugs.

The conversion addressed severe coin shortages in New South Wales, where foreign coinage had frequently been drained through maritime trade and rum had served as an unofficial substitute. Macquarie proclaimed the new pieces legal tender on 1 July 1813, and they entered circulation in 1814. A total of 39,910 holey dollars and 39,910 dumps were produced. By raising the combined nominal value of both components to six shillings and threepence—twenty-five per cent above the original Spanish dollar—exporting the silver became unprofitable. The administration began recalling the coins in 1822 in favour of sterling, demonetising them completely in 1829.

Both parts are made of silver derived from the host Spanish dollar, which was originally struck at approximately 38 millimetres in diameter. The outer ring, designated the holey dollar, was countermarked around the inner cut with "New South Wales 1813" on the obverse and "Five Shillings" on the reverse. The excised central disc, known as the dump, was restruck to show a crown on the obverse and its fifteen-pence denomination on the reverse.

The dump is identified as the extracted silver plug restruck with a crown on the obverse and its denomination on the reverse.