St. James's Auctions
Auction 32 19 May 2015
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Australia, Victoria, Adelaide pound, type two, 1852, date below crown within border, rev. value within border (KM.2; Fr.3), uncirculated, sharply struck with choice surfaces and a most pleasing old-gold colour, extremely rare
When South Australia became a British colony late in 1836, it was planned as a place of refuge for free immigrants, and its settlers saw the vast land before them as a new home where simple, hard labour might eventually free them from being in the employ of the earlier settlers who were landowners. Agriculture was the route most could take to independence; it would be a long and hard journey. Livestock and the production of wool were the two main endeavours. Other immigrants were employed as store clerks. Then gold was discovered in the early 1850s. It changed everything. At first there was great general excitement. As the realization of what this discovery could mean to the immigrant population took hold, however, the society was turned upside down. A vast private army of prospectors emerged. The capital of Adelaide, at the time a town of merchants, was soon to be transformed into a city built on gold, but not before it was abandoned by a great number of agricultural labourers and store employees as they rushed to the gold fields. Chaos ensued. Activity in the gold fields was frantic while normal commerce in Adelaide came nearly to a halt.
Gold ore and dust were brought from the nearby mines into Adelaide to be assayed. But it was raw gold, difficult to spend. It was not legal to turn it into coinage without approval from London, and such a move would take months to accomplish. Royal sanction might well be denied, nor was there an engraver in South Australia capable of producing Victoria's portrait. As a consequence, Adelaide's own authorities (the banking manager and the colonial treasurer) had no choice but to permit a substitute to be issued. Technically it was a token. It was not British. It did not feature Victoria's image. It was true Australian money! The authority to issue what has come to be known as the Adelaide Pound originated in the Bullion Act of 1852, passed by the South Australian Legislative Council. Right away, the act opened the Government Assay Office but initially it issued only gold ingots that were not practical in commerce.
Towards the end of the year 1852, in November, the first 'Pounds' were struck from freshly engraved local dies. These were coins supposedly equal to British gold sovereigns, the ideal coins for commerce. Unfortunately, the reverse die used by the Assay Office's coiners failed almost immediately, cracking finely at the top of the legend from the inner beading to the rim to left of DWT (known today as the Type 1 pound). A new die of slight variation was quickly prepared and was used to strike almost all Adelaide gold Pounds in existence today (the Type 2, without the die-crack, as exemplified in this lot). By February of 1853, only four months after the experiment of minting at Adelaide had begun, the last of the Adelaide Pounds had been struck - some 25,000 in all, almost the entire mintage being of the second dies combination. British gold sovereigns soon took their place, bearing the familiar Young Head portrait of Victoria and a distinctive reverse design for the new Sydney Mint. While the Type 1 pounds are great rarities, any Adelaide pound is a numismatic treasure. Most have perished, first subjected to the abuses of ordinary commerce, many damaged or fashioned into jewellery, and finally turned in for their gold content (they were finer than the standard sovereign) to be made into new coins. These are the 'territorial' gold coins of Australia, and they are deservedly coveted by collectors worldwide – the first gold coins of Australia, made entirely of almost pure, native gold ore.
Estimate: £20,000-25,000
When South Australia became a British colony late in 1836, it was planned as a place of refuge for free immigrants, and its settlers saw the vast land before them as a new home where simple, hard labour might eventually free them from being in the employ of the earlier settlers who were landowners. Agriculture was the route most could take to independence; it would be a long and hard journey. Livestock and the production of wool were the two main endeavours. Other immigrants were employed as store clerks. Then gold was discovered in the early 1850s. It changed everything. At first there was great general excitement. As the realization of what this discovery could mean to the immigrant population took hold, however, the society was turned upside down. A vast private army of prospectors emerged. The capital of Adelaide, at the time a town of merchants, was soon to be transformed into a city built on gold, but not before it was abandoned by a great number of agricultural labourers and store employees as they rushed to the gold fields. Chaos ensued. Activity in the gold fields was frantic while normal commerce in Adelaide came nearly to a halt.
Gold ore and dust were brought from the nearby mines into Adelaide to be assayed. But it was raw gold, difficult to spend. It was not legal to turn it into coinage without approval from London, and such a move would take months to accomplish. Royal sanction might well be denied, nor was there an engraver in South Australia capable of producing Victoria's portrait. As a consequence, Adelaide's own authorities (the banking manager and the colonial treasurer) had no choice but to permit a substitute to be issued. Technically it was a token. It was not British. It did not feature Victoria's image. It was true Australian money! The authority to issue what has come to be known as the Adelaide Pound originated in the Bullion Act of 1852, passed by the South Australian Legislative Council. Right away, the act opened the Government Assay Office but initially it issued only gold ingots that were not practical in commerce.
Towards the end of the year 1852, in November, the first 'Pounds' were struck from freshly engraved local dies. These were coins supposedly equal to British gold sovereigns, the ideal coins for commerce. Unfortunately, the reverse die used by the Assay Office's coiners failed almost immediately, cracking finely at the top of the legend from the inner beading to the rim to left of DWT (known today as the Type 1 pound). A new die of slight variation was quickly prepared and was used to strike almost all Adelaide gold Pounds in existence today (the Type 2, without the die-crack, as exemplified in this lot). By February of 1853, only four months after the experiment of minting at Adelaide had begun, the last of the Adelaide Pounds had been struck - some 25,000 in all, almost the entire mintage being of the second dies combination. British gold sovereigns soon took their place, bearing the familiar Young Head portrait of Victoria and a distinctive reverse design for the new Sydney Mint. While the Type 1 pounds are great rarities, any Adelaide pound is a numismatic treasure. Most have perished, first subjected to the abuses of ordinary commerce, many damaged or fashioned into jewellery, and finally turned in for their gold content (they were finer than the standard sovereign) to be made into new coins. These are the 'territorial' gold coins of Australia, and they are deservedly coveted by collectors worldwide – the first gold coins of Australia, made entirely of almost pure, native gold ore.
Estimate: £20,000-25,000