An extremely rare 1813 ‘Holey Dollar’ worth around AU$500,000 is among 12 rare and valuable coins which have been snatched from a public display at the State Library of New South Wales last week. The theft occurred around 3.40pm and was captured on CCTV in the Macquarie Street library, which is also a museum for much of the state’s early history. The thief broke into a locked armoured glass display case to take 12 Australian coins dating from between 1810 and the 1920s.
Police also believe a second smash and grab theft about two hours later may be connected. A man has entered the hotel on George Street, around 5.20pm and took four sets of diamond earrings, three diamond rings and a gold pendant, with a total value of $75,000, from a display cabinet.
The other coins stolen include WWI-era sixpences, 1857 sovereigns and 1853 gold ounces – Gold Rush-era coins and a 1924 florin.
On 27 August 2012, an auction house in Australia, Coinworks Pty Ltd sold a "Hannibal Head" Holey Dollar for a record price of AU$410,000.
The ‘holey dollar’ was the first currency minted in Australia, created by Governor Lachlan Macquarie from 40,000 Spanish reales (the coin known as ‘pieces of eight’), as a solution to the colony’s coin shortage. The coin owned by the State Library was made from an 1810 Lima. Macquarie ordered one of his convicts, a forger, to cut the centre out of each Spanish coin, then restamped both the outer ring and the leftover dump with NSW insignias, setting the value of the holey dollar at five shillings at 15 pence.
