5 Dollars - Leonard I Henry Chadwick, Essai

Hutt River Province, the secessionist micro-nation declared by Leonard Casley in Western Australia in 1970, issued coins sporadically as deliberate assertions of sovereign status rather than for any practical monetary purpose. This 1992 essai — a trial strike never released for general circulation — was produced under the name Leonard I Henry Chadwick, the regnal style Casley adopted after unilaterally proclaiming himself prince in 1972. Essais of this province are scarce simply because mintages were tiny and documentation inconsistent; Hutt River never maintained the kind of mint records a national authority would.