Baldwin's of St. James's
Auction 27 13 Jan 2019
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World Coins, Australia, Victoria, Adelaide pound, 1852, type two, dentillated inner border on reverse, GOVERNMENT ASSAY OFFICE ADELAIDE, date below crown within ornate border, rev. VALUE ONE POUND within ornate border, weight and fineness spelled out as surrounding border legend, finely reeded edge (KM.2; Fr.3), adjustments in the soft gold on reverse, pleasing yellow-gold colour, very fine, very rare
The two varieties of Adelaide gold pounds are quite distinctive apart from the famous die-break at the start of DWT on the rarer type one. Only a few dozen, no more than 50 it is believed, of this the first gold coin of Australia were struck before the die cracked and was replaced. The local die-sinker Joshua Payne was called back to the assay office and the second die he produced for the 'value side' of the coin differed distinctly from his first die – it utilized the ornate circular border of the other side instead of the bold circle of dots that had been used on the now-broken die. It has never been postulated why this change was made by Payne, but it could be that he thought the ornate border would distribute the minting pressure better, lessening the chance of breaking the die. The second set of dies turned out some 25,000 coins, now called the type two issue, as seen in this lot. All of the struck pieces went into circulation. They were of course a temporary 'fix' to the monetary dilemma, never given legal approval by Britain, and as soon as a branch mint was set up the Assay Office at Adelaide was dismantled and over a fairly brief period of time almost all of the gold tokens, which is what they were technically, were withdrawn from commerce. Most were melted, as they were heavier than the coins that replaced them, the first gold sovereigns of Australia. Money was money and profit was profit, so into the fire they went. Almost nobody thought to save any of them. Survival was a matter of sheer chance. It was decades before a collecting society grew up in Australia, by which time almost all of the Adelaide pounds had long since perished.
($10000-12000)
The two varieties of Adelaide gold pounds are quite distinctive apart from the famous die-break at the start of DWT on the rarer type one. Only a few dozen, no more than 50 it is believed, of this the first gold coin of Australia were struck before the die cracked and was replaced. The local die-sinker Joshua Payne was called back to the assay office and the second die he produced for the 'value side' of the coin differed distinctly from his first die – it utilized the ornate circular border of the other side instead of the bold circle of dots that had been used on the now-broken die. It has never been postulated why this change was made by Payne, but it could be that he thought the ornate border would distribute the minting pressure better, lessening the chance of breaking the die. The second set of dies turned out some 25,000 coins, now called the type two issue, as seen in this lot. All of the struck pieces went into circulation. They were of course a temporary 'fix' to the monetary dilemma, never given legal approval by Britain, and as soon as a branch mint was set up the Assay Office at Adelaide was dismantled and over a fairly brief period of time almost all of the gold tokens, which is what they were technically, were withdrawn from commerce. Most were melted, as they were heavier than the coins that replaced them, the first gold sovereigns of Australia. Money was money and profit was profit, so into the fire they went. Almost nobody thought to save any of them. Survival was a matter of sheer chance. It was decades before a collecting society grew up in Australia, by which time almost all of the Adelaide pounds had long since perished.
($10000-12000)