STRANGE DISCOVERY OF COIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 116, 18 May 1877, Page 4

STRANGE DISCOVERY OF COIN.

A great find ot copper and silver coins was made at Newcastle, New South Wales, on the 13th ultimo, by Mr Peter Street, whilst he was engaged in sinking a well. The " find," states the Pilot, waa met with 18 in. from the surface. Some copper coins were first thrown ap, a few at a time, by the spade, but as the excavation went on the coins became more plentiful, and ailver showed. Then careful search waa made, and there were found in all between 400 and 500 copper, and soma 60 or 70 silver coins, The smaller silver coins were enclosed in what had originally been a wooden box about 4in loDg, carved to represent a shoe. There were aleo found a couple of clay marbles, and the braes ramrod receiver of an old-fashioned pistol. The copper coins proved to be all British currency struck the latter end of the last and th. 3 commencement of the present century, pennies of 1797 predominating, and the halfpenceand farthings bearing the date 1825. The emblems on many of the latter are es sharply dtfiued as when ieaued from the mint, and they do not appear to have been much iv circulation, whereHS the pennite are more or leas worn. The silver coins comprise four entire Spanish doliais in original form, 11 with a hole nbou< (he siza of a sixpence stumped out of the centre, whilst on the face of thp coin, but does to the ertg'j of the aperture, "Ne v South Wales" is in mo.-t iustHuces distinctly visible. Tne latter are ol the dhte 1804. The greater nuinht-r of the silver coins npp^ar to be fraclir.n> 1 pins of the Spanish dollar — thj date of one piece being 1751; a faw coins with the emblems almost, iff iced are as small as a threepenny piece English, but worn very thiu; 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 were also once the special currency of the colony, and dated 1817 in a circle near the edge, and on the obverse "fifteeopence" in lettering. The little wooden shoe is half rotted away and the pistol mount simply stained with verdigris. Mr John Bingle, the chronicler of Newcastle, expressed an opinion that the coins hud probably been hidden nearly fifty years ago. The presence of such a variety of silver coins he explained by the fact that iv the e.rly days of the colooy British silver currency was 'so scarce that any description of silver coiD, from the Spanish dollar downwards, was counted current, and had a recognised colonial value. Tbe pierced or "holey" dollars and the flfteeapenoy pieces Mr Biugle showed to have had connection with OQti another. The Governor of the day

devised the expedient of altering the dollars so that their currency should be peculiar to the colony.