STRANGE DISCOVERY OF COIN.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 890, 2 May 1877, Page 3

STRANGE DISCOVERY OF COIN.

A great find of copper and silver coins was nude at Newcastle, New South W ales, on the 13th ult. by Mr Peter Street, whilst he was engaged in sinking a well. The “find, stales the Pilot, was met with ISin. liven the surface. Some copper coins -were first thrown up, a few at a time, by the spade, but, as the excavation went on the coins became more plentiful, and silver showed. Then careful search was made, and there were found in all between 400 and 500 copper and some GO or 70 silver coins. The smaller silver coins wore enclosed in what had been originally a wooden box about din. long, carved to represent' a slice. There were also found a couple of clay marbles, and the brass ramrod receiver of an old-fashioned pistol. The copper coins proved to be all British currency struck the latter end of the last; and the commencement of the present century, pennies of 1797 predominating, and the halfpence and farthings bearing the date 1825. The emblems on many of the latter are as sharply defined as when issued from the mint, and they do not appear to have been much in circulation, whereas the pennies arc more or less worn. The silver coins comprise four entire Spanish dollars in original form, 11 with a hole about the size of a sixpence stamped out of the centre, whilst on the face of the coin, but close to the edge ol the aperture, “ New South Wales ” is in most instances distinctly visible. The latter arc of the date 1804. The greater number of the silver coins appear to bo fractional parts of the Spanish dollar —the date of one piece being 1751 ; a few coins with the emblems almost effaced are as small as a threepenny - piece English, but worn very thin; three English shillings of 1817 and 1820 and some Indian coins are included, and there are about, a dozen silver pieces the size of a sixpence, but much thicker. These latter also were once the special currency of the colony, and dated 1817 in a circle near the edge, and on the obverse “ fiftoenpence ”in lettering. The little wooden shoe is half-rotted away, and the pistol mount simply stained with verdigris. Mr John Single, the chronicler of Newcastle, expressed an opinion that the coins had probably been hidden nearly fifty years ago. The presence of such a variety of silver coins he explained by the fact that in the early days of the colony British silver currency was so scarce that any description of silver coin, from the Spanish dollar downwards, was counted current, and had recognised colonial value. The pierced or “holey” dollars and the fifteenpenny pieces Mr Single showed to have had connexion with one another. The governor of the day devised the expedient of altering the dollars so that their currency should be peculiar to the colony.