1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Bicentenary of the Holey Dollar and Dump - Silver Proof

In 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie solved the chronic coin shortage plaguing New South Wales by purchasing 40,000 Spanish colonial eight-reales and having a central disc punched from each — creating two coins from one. The outer ring became the Holey Dollar, valued at five shillings; the centre plug, the Dump, at fifteen pence. It was a blunt, practical solution, and it gave the colony its first locally distinctive currency.

The convict assigned to punch and counterstamp the originals was William Henshall, a silversmith transported for forgery — a detail the historical record seems almost too neat to have invented.