1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - 200th Anniversary of the Holey Dollar and Dump

In 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie solved New South Wales' chronic coin shortage by purchasing 40,000 Spanish Colonial eight-reales pieces and ordering them punched through the centre. The outer ring — restamped as the "Holey Dollar" — circulated at five shillings, while the extracted centre plug, the "Dump," passed at fifteen pence. The manoeuvre effectively doubled the colony's usable currency and prevented the coins from being exported, since their mutilation rendered them worthless outside the colony.

The 2013 issue marks exactly two centuries since Macquarie's directive. William Henshall, a convicted forger transported to the colony, was the man actually tasked with the punching and countermarking work.