The coin is being sold by famous Melbourne coin house, Coinworks, and is expected to sell for around $500,000.
The ‘Hannibal Head’ Holey Dollar is legendary as it was discovered in a Bushranger’s hoard in Tasmania in 1881 and presented to the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir John Henry Lefroy. This coin is unique. There was another one that was bequeathed to the State Library of New South Wales by Sir William Dixson. However, it was stolen in 2014 and has never been recovered.
"Rare coins are a tangible connection to history and coins such as Holey Dollars embody the story of the time," says to Belinda Downie, director of Coinworks. "Collectors of rare coins often are as passionate about history as they are about coins."
Holey Dollars were Australia’s first currency. In 1813 Governor Lachlan Macquarie imported a hoard of 40,000 Spanish silver dollars from various parts of the Spanish empire to provide legal tender for the infant colony. Concluding that the shipment of 40,000 coins would not suffice, Macquarie decided to cut a hole in the centre of each dollar, thereby creating two coins out of one, a ‘Holey Dollar’ worth five shillings and a ‘Dump’ worth 15 pence.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s order for Spanish Silver Dollars was not date specific, any date would do and any monarch would suffice with King Charles III, Charles IIII, Ferdinand VI or Ferdinand VII being the crowns on those that arrived. The coins were minted across Mexico. Peru. Bolivia and quality was inconsequential. However these days the monarch, the mint and the quality are the attributes that make these coins more or less valuable.
The coin is called the ‘Hannibal Head’ due to an act of political history. The Spanish Empire was in decline and King Ferdinand VII was pressured by Napoleon Bonaparte to cede the Spanish throne to his brother Joseph. The Spanish colonial mint in Lima refused to recognise Bonaparte as King of Spain and in what can only be regarded as a political protest, created their own silver dollar with the legend of the imprisoned Ferdinand VII and an ’imaginary portrait’. The portrait was far from flattering and is referred to as the ‘Hannibal Head’ portrait.
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