The GOLD RUSH

Contents
Introduction Adelaide Ingots The Adelaide Pound (and Five Pounds) Kangaroo Office Coins Sydney Mint Gold Imperial Gold

Introduction

Gold was first discovered in 1823 (near Bathurst) by James McBrien. The news was kept quiet by the authorities of the time to prevent a convict uprising. By the late 1840's, free settlers had replaced convicts as the main immigrants. By the time the news that a prospector by the name of Edward Hargraves had found gold reached the rest of the world, Australia was already deep in the grips of gold fever. Labourers and settlers alike left their farms, city dwellers abandoned their homes and jobs, and fortune hunters quickly began to flood in from Europe, the United States and the Orient. The opportunity to cash in was quickly grasped by the Government of the day who immediately declared that prospectors and miners must pay a license fee of 30 shillings a month.

The transformation from penal settlement to mining boom reflected the attitudes of the people - hopelessness and despair replaced by opportunity and the prospect of riches. While prospective miners were still in overseas ports, the locals made the most of the head-start they had. Many towns were deserted when every able bodied man left for the goldfields. In a strange irony, as individuals were striking it rich, the towns they had left behind were decimated. To stop the manpower drain from Victoria, rewards were offered to find gold in the south.

Gold was soon discovered at Clunes and then at Ballarat. The frenzied diggers swarmed back, quickly turning Victoria into the golden centre of Australia. The imposition of licenses similar to the ones imposed in the north led to ugly disputes as the miners demanded that the fees be reduced. Tensions quickly reached boiling point in the famous Eureka Stockade clash near Ballarat in 1854.

The Gold Rush opened new roads inland, attracted immigrants and injected much needed cash into the economy. However, when the miners eventually returned home, gold dust and nuggets were not convenient forms of commerce. It was only a matter of time before these raw materials would be struck as gold coin, and in fact the first coins struck in Australia were made from this precious metal.

The first gold coins came into being in a roundabout way following the discovery of gold at Mount Alexander in the Castlemaine district of Victoria. When word hit Adelaide, some 500 kilometers to the west, the rush was on. In the following three months nearly half of South Australia's men were at the diggings. After five months the number stood at 8,000 miners. The drain on manpower had almost peaked to bring on a state of bankruptcy of the colony when about £50,000 worth of gold started to come back in the pockets of the lucky few.

Adelaide Ingots

The businessmen appealed again and Sir Henry sought the advice of George Tinline, the acting manager of the South Australian Banking Company. He was in favour of immediate action. They decided on a compromise when the Colonial Treasurer Robert Richard Torrens suggested that ingots and not coins be produced. This had the effect of putting the raw gold into a more convertible form without treading on royal toes.

Sir Henry felt safe. He had found a loophole in the instructions handed down to him by Parliament. While the governors were not allowed to 'assent in Her Majesty's name' to any bill affecting the currency of the colony' there was a way out in the accompanying paragraph which said 'unless urgent necessity exists requiring such to be brought into immediate operation'. This was urgent. So urgent, in fact, that only two hours elapsed between reading the proposed law to the Legislative Council on 28th January, 1852 and having it passed as the Bullion Act Number One. The ingots were not intended as general issue but for banks to hold as backing for their notes. The Act fixed the price of gold at £3-11s an ounce, 9 shillings more than was then being paid in the Victorian goldfields.

They were severely criticised from the word go. It was 4th March when the first ingot appeared and those who saw it were not impressed. They bore no resemblance to the ingots we know today. They were simply a flat strip of gold (some said flattened by a steam roller) which bore an official crown seal and punch figures showing the fineness of the gold which was roughly standardised at 23 and one eighth carats.

The weight of the ingot was also shown, as was a weight conversion to 22-carat gold. Both these figures were punched inside a circular stamp bearing the words 'Weight of Ingot'. They were irregular in shape, some being round and others rectangular, roughly measuring 50 x 25 mm. Many charged that the strips would be easy to counterfeit as the size was not standardised and even the colour of the gold varied - ingots with silver content were pale while gold ore containing copper had an orange tinge.

Thousands of these irregular ingots were produced. Most would not survive for more than a year or two. Today, less than dozen Adelaide ingots are thought to have survived.

The Adelaide Pound (and Five Pounds)

This piece of efficiency was shortlived. After striking no more than 20 or 30 coins, a die-crack was discovered. The crack occurred from the inner circle to the rim beside the downstroke of the 'D' of 'DWT' on the reverse side of the coin. Very few more coins with the Type I design could be struck before the reverse die would completely shatter. A new die was engraved. Although the inscription on the replacement die is similar, close examination of the two types reveals a number of minor differences.

About 25,000 of the Type II variety were struck and issued and both coins are now considered to be very rare. Half a dozen five pound coins are believed to have been struck but no records have been found to verify this. None are known to have survived. The design of the five pound coin was similar to that of the one pound and was as large as our 1966 50 cent piece.

In 1919, twelve gold and two silver restrikes of the Adelaide Five Pound coin were especially struck as historical artefacts by the Melbourne Mint, using Joshua Payne's original dies. Six of the gold coins were subsequently melted. Another gold restrike was made ten years later for the National Gallery of South Australia. Should an original five pound coin turn up, it would be regarded as one of the truly rare Australian coins.

Although the Type II was struck in quantity (for that period), few have survived. Soon after striking was completed, it was found that the weight of the gold was worth 1s 11d more than face value. As a result, many were melted down for their intrinsic value, thus ensuring their rarity to collectors who would come generations later.

The semi-official mint of South Australia, known as the Adelaide Assay Office, was to have a short history. Eventually London heard about the makeshift Bullion Act and withdrew Royal assent.

Kangaroo Office Coins

At about the same time as London folk were being told that the new Adelaide coins contained 10 percent more gold than their face value, there came fresh news that gold was being bought direct from the miners at the Ballarat goldfields for £2 15s per ounce. With the official value being pegged at £4 per ounce, it occurred to London die-sinker and engraver William Joseph Taylor that there were still severe shortages of gold coins in Victoria. The firm of Messrs. Hodgkin, Taylor and Tyndall proposed to set up a mint in Melbourne by buying gold at £2 15s per ounce and turning it into £4 per ounce gold coins.

In 1851 Taylor had exhibited a coining press at the Great Exhibition and for his latest adventure had no trouble finding wealthy backers to provide him with a fully supplied ship for his trip to Melbourne. Sailing on a chartered vessel, the Kangaroo, Taylor arrived on 23rd October, 1853. Here, the problems which would ultimately doom the project to failure struck. The wharves at Melbourne had no facilities for manhandling the press dockside in one piece. Many months were lost as the press was stripped down to be moved.

In the meantime, a large shipment of sovereigns arrived from London and the price of gold at Ballarat almost doubled to £4 4s an ounce. Dies to strike ¼ ounce, ½ ounce, 1 ounce and 2 ounce gold coins had accompanied the high-spirited team from London and with the new price of gold these were now useless.

Taylor was a resourceful man, however, and refused to give in. He opened the Kangaroo Office almost immediately, although it was almost eight months before the press was reassembled. The Port Phillip Kangaroo Office struck gold issues of two (£8), one (£4), half (£2) and quarter (£1) ounces dated 1853. All issues are extremely rare. Taylor then exhibited the press at the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition in an attempt to attract a new trade of striking tokens and medals.

When this failed, Taylor and his backers admitted defeat. The press was sold and orders were given for the dies to be tossed into Port Phillip Bay. This was not done, however, and the dies for the ¼ ounce and 1 ounce were later found by Stokes & Sons in Melbourne, to whom the original press had been sold. Now operating as Stokes (Australasia) Limited, this firm has been responsible for a number of restrikes in lead for the Numismatic Society of Victoria.

It is evident that Taylor also struck several trial pieces from each of the dies. The British Museum has a complete set in gold while the Royal Australian Mint has a set of gold-coloured gilt copper restrikes. A number of private collectors have some highly prized pieces and on rare occasions these are offered at auction.

It says much for Taylor's perseverance that back in London in 1855, he prepared dies for a pattern fourpence, sixpence and shilling which bear a number of similarities to the previous gold issues. The shilling and sixpence pattern pieces were struck in gold, silver, pewter and copper with both milled and plain edges. The plain-edged pieces are restrikes and are less valuable. The fourpence pieces were struck in copper. The dies for these coins were never sent to Australia.

Sadly, it came to nothing, and Taylor's dream of becoming a rich and an influential patron of Australian coinage ended up as numismatic's hard luck story. It is believed the entire flop cost Taylor and his associates £15,000.

In about 1860, the reverse of Taylor's Australian pattern shilling was muled with the obverse of different varieties of Wiener's English pattern shilling. Specimens in gold, silver and copper were produced. Later restrikes of these mules also exist.

Sydney Mint Gold

Legislation for the establishment of a branch of the London Royal Mint in Sydney was announced in August, 1853. Ironically, the new mint was to be housed in part of the old Rum Hospital which itself owes its existence to 'currency' of another kind. The mint opened on 14th May, 1855 and the first coins were struck on 23rd June, 1855. When opening Parliament on 5th June, the Governor General advised that the building of the Mint was complete, the machinery erected, and the process of coinage commenced. It was anticipated that charge for assaying and coining would fully cover the cost of running the facility.

The first Sydney Mint sovereigns were unique in the history of the British Empire. In a situation which has not been repeated since, the coins carried a design which was completely different from that of the standard British issue. Even so, the dies for both the sovereign and half sovereign were slapped together in a half-hearted way by the authorities in London.

The reverse, which featured the words 'Sydney Mint' and 'Australia', was a design adapted from the sixpenny and shilling English coins circulating at the time. The obverse, by James Wyon, showed a thirty-six-year-old Queen Victoria who was featured uncrowned with ribbon in her tied-up hair. This obverse design appears only on coins minted in 1855 and 1856 and these are now very scarce, especially in better condition.

In 1857, with less than a total mintage of 2 million coins, a new obverse of Queen Victoria was featured. Leonard Wyon attempted to give the new portrait a more Australian flavour with the new hair-do featuring a spray of banksia. The first Sydney Mint coins were only intended to circulate in New South Wales. This was later amended by the British Treasury to include the other 'Colonies of Australasia' but not the United Kingdom.

The other colonies were less than enthusiastic. Doubts arose about the intrinsic value of the sovereign. Some claimed it was worth only 19s 10d. Some Victorian merchants discounted it to 19s. However, an assay from the Royal Mint in London quelled the rumours, in fact creating a rush for the coins. In January, 1856, the mint disclosed that the fineness of the Australian coin exceeded that of its British counterpart.

In the report of the master of the Royal Mint dated 3rd March, 1856, he states 'Several pieces from the Governor General have reached me, of which the assay offered nothing remarkable ... You could not have hit the standard more closely than in the Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns lately received, which the average is exact, the divergence of individual pieces is extremely moderate, and shows great regularity of work.'

The Australian coin somehow always seemed to look paler than the British coin and now the reason for this was clear. The Australian ore had a high percentage of silver while the darker tone of the British coin was due to the copper content. Soon they were being accepted with great relish in all the business houses around Australia. From 1868, they were even accepted as legal tender in Canada and Newfoundland. Britain had been accepting the coins since 1863.

Many of these early Sydney Mint sovereigns left Australia in traders purses and disappeared overseas. Bullion dealers disposed of others by melting them down for their intrinsic value. Those which remained were generally worn flat by a sovereign-starved community.

Although mintage figures seem high in some years, these coins are scarce especially in better grade. This situation was made worse by the short run of Sydney Mint gold coins. Production of the half sovereigns halted in 1866 and the British Treasury revoked its approval to mint any further Sydney Mint coins in 1871. The last Sydney Mint sovereign is dated 1870.

Imperial Gold

It is somehow fitting that the St. George design should appear on Australian coins as it was Sir Joseph Banks who helped to resurrect the image of St. George slaying the mythical dragon. Three years before the first St. George sovereign appeared, Britain had slain its own foe on the battlefields of Waterloo. Banks suggested to King George III that such a design would be a fitting tribute to Britain's mighty victory. It is said that Pistrucci used an impoverished table waiter as his model for the athletic St. George.

In 1871 the first of the new sovereigns appeared from the presses at the Sydney Mint. Both the Shield and St. George reverse designs were struck for the sovereign, while only the Shield reverse for the half sovereign was employed until 1893. A small 'S' mintmark was used to distinguish the Sydney mint product from its British sister. On the St. George design the mintmark can be seen just below the head of the queen on the obverse side. On the shield reverse, the small mintmark can be seen just below the shield.

The Melbourne Mint also produced both reverses of the sovereign and the mintmark "M" can be found in the same location as the Sydney coins' mintmark. From 1874 to 1899 a total of nearly £67 million worth of gold coins were struck by the Sydney and Melbourne Mints. This was twice as much as the Royal Mint in London struck in the same production period.

In 1887 there was another design change and new locations for the mintmarks. This was the last year that the shield reverse sovereign was struck.

During the years in which the St. George reverse sovereign was struck alongside the shield reverse, neither mint bothered to keep separate records of production. The mintages shown for these coins is duplicated as there is no way of telling just how many of each were produced in a particular year. It is evident that the St. George reverse was more favoured and that the shield reverse is by far the scarcer of the two designs.

New arrangements saw the 1887 St. George design modified during the year and being used exclusively on sovereign issues by both mints. The shield reverse only was used for the half sovereign. A new portrait, designed to celebrate Victoria's golden jubilee in 1887, was severely criticised. The likeness gave Victoria a hard, scowling appearance and she looked almost comical with the tiny crown perched on her head. The crown looked as if it would topple off at any moment.

Such brickbats were of little concern to its Austrian designer, Joseph Edgar Boehm, who was knighted for his efforts in 1889. His initials appear on only some of the Sydney Mint half sovereign issues in 1891 (under the obverse bust) and constitute a catalogued variety. A small number of gold 1887 two and five pounds were struck for V.I.P's. These are extremely rare today. They were struck at the Sydney mint and should not be confused with their English counterparts which were struck in larger numbers. The mintmark can be found on the reverse just above the date.

As the advancing years crept up on Queen Victoria, it was time that her portrait was updated. The resulting design by Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Brock was to become known as the Old Head design although it is probably kinder to Victoria's memory to call it the Veiled Head type. This design was struck continuously until Victoria's death in 1901 after a reign of sixty-three years.

Production was stepped up after 1899 when another mint was set up in Perth. The mintmark 'P' on all subsequent sovereigns and half sovereigns can be found in the same place designated for the Sydney and Melbourne mintmarks. Any sovereign without a mintmark will be a British issue. From 1894, the shield reverse half sovereign was dropped in favour of the St. George design.

Edward VII's short reign saw an abundance of gold sovereigns and half sovereigns from all three mints. The bald-headed likeness was the work of George William de Saules, who also designed the obverse of the first Australian coins of 1910. The issue of sovereigns and half sovereigns began in 1902 and in that year alone gold coins worth over £11 million were produced by the combined efforts of the three mints. Again a small number of 1902 two and five pound issues were struck for a select few at the Sydney Mint.

The designer of the George V Australian silver and bronze issues, Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal, was selected to produce the obverse design for the George V sovereign and half sovereign coins. Like de Saules, Mackennal preferred a bare-headed design of the monarch for the gold series, while both men went for the more majestic crown and robes for the silver and bronze issues. A slightly reduced size king's head was used on the gold sovereigns produced between 1929 and 1931..

Some dramatic changes occurred during the reign of George V which would eventually see the demise of the Australian gold series. Gold became a less integral part of the Australian financial system after 1915. The huge mountain of gold which had helped to found the colony began to dry up in the 1920's. Soon Australia needed to import gold to feed its coining presses.

In 1926, the Sydney Mint closed. Hard as it is to comprehend, the mint actually went broke making coins. Perth and Melbourne continued until 1931 when the last sovereigns were struck. Officially half sovereigns were last struck in 1920, but the rare 1918 issue is the last date known. This is also true of the last years of the sovereign. It is thought that, although minted, many of these coins were not released and were later melted down.

Today, most collectors are content to accumulate a type set of sovereigns and half sovereigns due to the enormous cost involved in collecting a date set. Over the years, the Australian gold series has proven to be an excellent investment area. Many investors feel secure that sovereigns have value in more ways than one. There is their intrinsic value, and more importantly, that special quality about a coin which gives feeling to the word 'numismatics'.

Sources:
Booklet accompanying the 1994 Masterpieces in Silver - Colonial Australia - Set,
Rigby's Australian Coin and Banknote Guide - Greg McDonald - 1983.

1995 Five Dollars