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Lot 12
Description:
Includes two unique 'copper trials' of Dumps with one of a previously unrecorded type
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Exhibited:
- Coins, Australia & New Zealand Literature:
- Coins, Monies & Stamps Medium:
- 355 Circa:
- Collectibles Notes:
- The collection begins with an intriguing E3 Dump struck in copper. Collectors of Australian Colonial coins would no doubt be aware of the contemporary forgeries of the NSW 1813 Dump that turn up from time to time. In a penal colony inhabited by many resourceful criminals, it was hardly surprising that someone would look to make copies of a coin with such a simple design. These crude forgeries only needed to be passed off to the unsuspecting in a quick transaction, and so were struck in cheap copper and then coated in a silvery lead wash to give them the look of the real silver dumps. However, not all copper dumps were crude forgeries meant to fool. The late Dr W.J.D. Mira, who was widely acknowledged as the foremost expert on Australian Colonial coins, held in his collection both D2 and E3 type varieties of dumps that were struck in copper, and which exactly mirrored the silver strikings. Mira’s work “The Holey Dollars of New South Wales - A Pictorial Record of Known Surviving Specimens,’ which was published in 1988, is still regarded as the standard reference work for collectors of Holey Dollars and Dumps. The question to be asked is why D2 and E3 Dumps were struck in copper in the first place and by whom. Mira speculated that copper trials of both Holey Dollars and Dumps were struck with the imprimatur of Governor Macquarie by the convict die-maker William Henshall, to “test the machine(ry)” before it was used for the silver strikings, and hence the existence of the D2 and E3 Copper Dumps in his collection. They too, like the forged copper dumps show the remnants of a silvery lead wash to demonstrate the appearance of the silver strikings to the authorities. It is possible that the wash may have been added latter as the fact that both the D2 and E3 copper dumps in Mira's collection were heavily circulated suggests that they were later passed off as silver dumps. That copper trials were struck was re-affirmed in 2007 with a new discovery of a trial strike of a Holey Dollar on a Great Britain 1799 Halfpenny which sold for $233,000. This coin turned up surprisingly on Vancouver Island in Canada accompanied by a copper Dump of an unknown type, which unfortunately was sold off before the significance of the find was realised because there is strong circumstantial evidence that both trial strikes were souvenired by William Henshall himself. Because of his hands-on knowledge Henshall was always a prime suspect for the forged copper dumps that began circulating in the Colony, and perhaps as a deterrent he received an unusually severe flogging for trespassing on Sydney's Domain on the direct orders of Governor Macquarie his past employer. The suspicions were never proven, but when his wife died in 1817, Henshall decided it was time to take leave of Sydney and sailed on the ‘Chapman’ for England presumably to reconnect with his long abandoned first family. There are no further records of his life or death, but tellingly there are a very sizeable number of Henshalls (an uncommon name in a small community) buried on Vancouver Island where the two copper trials were later discovered, strongly suggesting that this may be the final resting place of Australia’s first 'Mint Master.' Our research indicates the E3 Type were likely the first dumps struck which would make the unique copper trial of this type in the collection the earliest surviving Dump and a true museum piece. As a comparison coin, the collection also offers a relatively high-grade E3 Dump which once graced the collection of Pat Boland the curator of the Sydney Mint Museum. He originally purchased the dump from the coin dealer Dave Raymond in March 1946 for the then significant sum of 4 Pounds 5 Shillings. Dave Raymond was renowned as one of Sydney’s earliest commercial coin dealers and was active from 1914 to 1958. Of course, if you visited Sydney in recent years you would have encountered the mayhem that goes with a major transport upgrade as great tracts of the city’s streets were torn up to accommodate a new light rail network. History certainly does repeat itself, for in the early 1920s whole streets in the Sydney CBD were excavated to install the subterranean tunnels required for the City Circle Train Line. Large-scale excavations in a built-up area are always going to be disruptive but they can also turn up things long buried with some discovered ‘treasures’ being of great historical importance. Such was the case in 1927 when a handful of forged dumps struck in copper were unearthed when part of Pitt Street was dug up. These contemporary forgeries had been buried for a hundred years taking a toll on their surfaces which were now grainy and pitted. All the discovered dumps were struck on the same set of crude dies suggesting that just one forger was responsible for the criminal enterprise, however it is noted that some examples were more complete than others having either plain edges or simulated edge milling much like the real silver dumps. The purity of the copper suggests that the planchets used to strike the dumps were derived from the Great Britain 1797 ‘Cartwheel’ pennies and halfpennies that were common in colonial Sydney. Metal analysis also reveals minute traces of a silvery lead wash which would have coated the forgeries to make them more convincing when they were passed off as real dumps. Australia started out as a penal colony and so it was obvious that some of its new citizens would revert to their original calling in life and these contemporary forgeries were the work of one such recidivist and speak strongly of Australia’s convict roots. Much like the illegal Promissory notes which circulated in Sydney at the same time under the blind eye of a government desperate for circulating currency, these coins were also out there in circulation and now survive as significant historical relics. They are deserving of equal standing in Australian numismatics alongside the silver dumps struck in 1813 by the convict forger William Henshall for Governor Macquarie and which circulated in New South Wales until 1829. There are three examples of these contemporary forgeries in the collection each displaying different attributes. The first is a contemporary forgery with a simulated milled edge which is struck on a 2mm thick planchet. The second is also struck on a 2mm planchet but has a plain edge. This coin was originally sold by the coin dealer Dave Raymond. The third coin which has survived with far greater detail also has a milled edge and still has significant traces of the lead wash. Struck on a thinner planchet measuring 1.5mm it is the finest surviving example. The history of the Dump had been thoroughly recorded through the years, but it wasn’t until 1974 that the late Dr W.D ‘Bill’ Mira adopted a more studied approach when he introduced an alpha numeric system to re-classify the ‘official’ NSW 1813 dumps into distinctive types and, was able on a cursory examination, to fit them neatly into four combinations. Fourteen years later in his 1988 publication “The Holey Dollars of New South Wales” he had determined that about 70% of surviving dumps were of the A1 type, 25% were D2 with the C4 and E3 types making up the remaining 2% and 3% respectively. Even though the four basic varieties of the dumps were already well documented, Mira’s more scientific classifications quickly replaced the ill-fitting adjectival descriptions that had earlier been relied upon. You can now confidently identify the Dump exhibited by Coleman P. Hyman at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 as part of his display of the “Coins, Coinages and Currency of Australasia” as Mira’s rare Type C. But Mira’s research may well have turned up historical descriptions of coins that did not seem to fit comfortably within the four types, as sequencing would suggest that at one-time he may have considered a fifth ‘B’ type obverse for the dumps, but our enquiries with his co-collaborator on his 1988 work could shed no light on this possibility. Certainly, we have thought for several years that a type ‘5’ reverse should be recognised on the A type coins resulting in an ‘A5’ Dump, as some of the high-grade dumps identified as A1 show significant serifying on the reverse letters when compared to the block type found on most A1 dumps. This characteristic is harder to pick up on worn dumps, and so it is difficult to arrive at a split, but the plainer reverse lettering was probably the result of the original A1 reverse die being re-cut and simplified for aesthetic appeal quite early on in production. Except for the spacing, this ‘A5’ reverse is not too dissimilar to the reverse used on some of the ‘experimental’ C4 dumps which can show evidence of re-cutting on the serified lettering, and it is likely that some of the same letter punches were used on both types. Until recently, Henshall’s known ‘official’ copper trials were limited to the Dollar struck on a Great Britain 1799 Halfpenny and the copper E3 and C4 Dumps found in Mira’s own collection. But in recent years there has been another exciting new discovery of a ‘copper’ trial of the NSW 1813 Dump of an unrecorded type that is unique in any metal. This coin anchors the collection in our sale and differs substantially from the A1, D2, E3 and C4 dumps that are identified as being struck at ‘the Factory’ by William Henshall, but it has compelling similarities to at least three of them. The most observable difference on this coin is the shape of the crown on the obverse which is taller but also shorter in the base than the styles adopted on the other types but is closest in look to that found on the more finished A and D obverses. Certainly, the cross atop the crown mirrors the shape to the A and D types as do the fleur-de-lis within the design. The beads in the crown alternate between large and small like the A type but without its left to right upward slope and are closer in orientation to the D obverse where the uniform beads are centred. Like on the D type, the cross on the crown points slightly to the left of the ‘T’ in ‘SOUTH’, but the ‘S’ of ‘WALES’ falls just below the bar of the crown which is consistent with the re-orientated legend found on the A obverse. All the four acknowledged dump types have Arabic 1’s in the dates, but unfortunately on this new discovery inopportune surface corrosion makes it difficult to determine whether the tips of the 1’s are missing or just lightly struck, but certainly as with the A obverse, the second 1 appears slightly skinnier than the first. The 8 is crossed over which is also observed on high-grade A type dumps, but the 3 is struck in a totally new font not found on any other type. This digit does not have the downward bend on the top bar of the 3 found on the A and D types, and although straight like on the C and E dumps, it has a distinctively shortened top along with a fully formed ‘V’ between the two segments of the 3 which alters the shape of the inner void at the bottom. Overall, this copper trial exhibits a totally new obverse that is not found on any circulating dump and, so to catalogue it, we have requisitioned the missing ‘B’ from the Mira types. The reverse of the new coin is also revealing as it also has the serifed lettering found on the 4 and the proposed ‘5’ reverse that we have identified. Some of the same letter punches are likely to have used on all three types as the orientation and look of the ‘FTE’ of ‘FIFTEEN’ especially is a close but inexact match but some letters such as the ‘N’ in ‘PENCE’ looks to be a different font. As would be expected, the spacing of ‘FIFTEEN PENCE’ does not exactly correspond with either the reverse of the 4 or ‘5’ types because of the wide placement of the last ‘N’ of ‘FIFTEEN’ and the compactness of the word ‘PENCE’, but as an important measure of its authenticity it too shows evidence of the letters being re-cut, a process which is clearly observed on some of the experimental 4 reverses. Because of the obvious dissimilarities to the acknowledged reverse types 1, 2, 3 & 4 and the proposed ‘Type 5’ we have sequenced it as a new ‘Type 6.’ Like all the other copper trials of dumps that have surfaced, it also shows remnants of a silvery lead wash that would have been applied by Henshall to demonstrate to the authorities the look of the soon to be produced silver dumps. However, after two hundred years no silver dumps of this type have been identified in circulation and so it can be safely assumed that this unique copper trial never made it to the follow-up experimental stage that produced the limited numbers of silver C4 and E3 dumps. We will never know why the ‘B6’ Dump was discarded so early by Henshall, but in the timeline of the dumps’ production, it would seem to have been struck after the experimental C4 dumps but before the interrupted run of ‘A5’ dumps which preceded the major production run of the A1 dumps. On this assumption, it is likely the first dumps struck were the ‘crude’ E3 type and probably the last the ‘finished’ D2 type. This unique ‘B6’ Dump is generally in good Fine condition excepting for surface porosity and design loss as a result of having been buried. It represents a unique exemplar of Australian Colonial numismatic history.
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22 August 2021 12:00 AEST
Paddington, Sydney, Australia
Smalls Auctions
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Bid Increments
| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| A$0 | A$249 | A$5 |
| A$250 | A$999 | A$10 |
| A$1,000 | A$4,999 | A$25 |
| A$5,000 | A$9,999 | A$50 |
| A$10,000 + | A$100 |