Welcome to the second issue. The website is coming along. In the last week I have added a web forum where visitors to the site can post items of interest, ask questions and offer help to fellow collectors. The forum has a classifieds section where you can sell any unwanted coins. Users can also post their wish lists in the hope they will be fulfilled.
Thanks to kb I have added a link to the "Coins-r-us" chat room he has set up. This hangout is a good place to meet fellow collectors. I have participated in some interesting discussions and met some nice people. I hope to see you there.
I would like to thank everyone that has offered input to this site. Again I encourage you to pass information on to me. Do not be afraid to contribute. I am happy to publish articles that you write.
Everone takes for granted that coins are legal tender. But what makes it legal tender? This question is a relatively easy one to answer, but it does have a history.
The first trading in Australia was done using items of value. Early trade was based on barter. During convict time the most common trade item was rum. Early settlers had little coin. Most of the coin used was gold and silver brought in by visiting traders from the likes of Spain. The problem with that was coins were taken out of early Australian circulation quicker than they came in. This obviously created a coin shortage. Proclamation occurred in 1800 to try and solve this problem. The Governor declared that certain foreign coinage had "legal tender" status in Australia. Proclamation had two aims. The first was to give official value to the various coins in circulation. The second was to give them an inflated value so as they would remain in Australia.
The first legal tender coins produced in Australia were the "holy dollar" and "dump" dated 1813. These were produced from Spanish currency the befell on the new colony of New South Wales. The right to call these legal tender in Australia can be attributed to Governor Lachlan Macquarie who allowed the mintage of the coins to stop the coin shortage of the time. Macquarie valued the holy dollar at 5 shillings. The dump was valued at 15 pence. Governor Brisbane later devalued this coinage to 4 shillings and 1 shilling respectively in 1823.
By virtue of the British Parliament passing the Silver Sterling Money Act in in 1829, the holy dollar and dump was dropped from the fledgling colony of New South Wales circulating coinage and was replaced by British coinage. The holy dollar and dump remained legal tender in Tasmania until 1849.
The gold rush of the 1850's again caused a shortage of Australian coinage. As quick solutions were needed, gold coins were struck to solve the problem. As no legislation had been passed to allow this quick issue, these coins were actually illegal. Another solution to the coinage shortage was to make gold ingots in a size that were easily transportable that carried the nature of coinage without actually being coinage. In other words loopholes in the Bullion Act were exploited to overcome a chronic coin shortage. These "coins" were designed for inter bank use but often found themselves in general circulation. The Bullion Act was amended in 1852 to allow for the mintage of "coins" like the Adelaide Pound. Strictly speaking these coins were classified as ingots and were not strictly legal tender.
In 1853 an Act was passed by British Parliament allowing for a branch of the London Royal Mint to open in Sydney. This lead to the production of Australian Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns which remained legal tender for 80 or so years. London gave permission for the Melbourne and Sydney mints to produce Australia's first legal tender silver and bronze coinage in 1898. No coins were actually minted as the question of federation was high on the agenda.
The year was 1909 when the Australian parliament passed the first law to produce "real" Australian legal tender. History tells us that our first truly Australian coins were minted a year later in England. It must be kept in mind that when I say this, Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns were being minted in Australia by branches of the London Royal Mint. Even though they were legal tender in Australia they were made under British Law.
In 1936 the 1909 Currency, Coinage and Legal Tender Act was amended to change the silver content of Australia's coinage. This was because the price of silver was increasing making the coins more expensive to produce.
The next change to our legal tender occurred in 1965 with the introduction of the Currency Act. This Act allowed for the introduction of decimal currency in 1966. Amendments to the Currency Act also allow for the privately owned Perth Mint to produce legal tender in Australia. Although the Perth mint can produce legal tender they are prevented from producing circulating coinage. This is the exclusive domain of the Royal Australian Mint. Special release coins may also be issued by the Royal Australian Mint by treasurer approval through regulations allowed by the Act. This gives our non standard collector coins legal tender status.
This article is not a designed as a comprehensive account of the history of our coinage. Hopefully though it gives the reader some insight into what has made the coins we collect legal tender. After all that is part of Australia's history.
References: McDonald G, Collecting and Investing in Australian Coins and Banknotes, 2nd Ed. (Sydney: 1991).