 Adelaide Assay Office. 1 Pound, 1852. 22.6mm, 8.8 grams. Legend GOVERNMENT ASSAY OFFICE * ADELAIDE* surrounds a crown and date framed in an ornamental circle. Rv. Legend WEIGHT. 5 DWT: 15 GRS: * 22 CARATS: surrounds a similar circle containing VALUE/ ONE/ POUND. Fr.3, KM 2.
The exciting history of Australia's local Gold coinage offers fascinating parallels to the private or Pioneer Gold of America's Appalachian and Far West Gold Rushes. After the discovery of Gold in New South Wales, the agricultural colony of South Australia faced an immediate crisis as its field hands streamed to the gold fields. A reward of £10,000 was offered for any Gold discovery within the colony's borders and writer Charles Simeon Hare wrote of the experiences of the American States of Georgia and Virginia in trying to regulate the use of Gold dust as a circulating medium.
Lieutenant Governor Sir Henry Young met with the heads of three leading banks to discuss the feasibility of creating official ingots to replace the inconvenient dust and proposals were embodied in the Bullion Act of Jan. 28, 1852.. Even before the Act was passed, Hare was actively seeking qualified mechanics to strike Tokens of 1 or 2 Sovereign value, ''to facsimile the Sovereign not only in value but in form,'' making the pieces in coin shape rather than irregular ingots of however correct weight.
On Jan. 6, 1853 the colonial authorities petitioned Her Majesty's Government to establish Branch Mints in South Australia. The three banks opposed making ingots legal tender but announced that they would use them as precious metal backing for circulating bank notes. At this point one colonial spokesman publicly urged Lieutenant Governor Young to emulate naval hero Horatio Nelson by disregarding official instructions and boldly issue the needed tokens and save the colony from financial ruin. The canny leader announced that ''if he were properly supported out of doors, he would do the needful.'' The expression ''out of doors'' referred to political support when the crunch might come from higher authority.
On January 28, the Governor gave his assent to the ingot issue, after assurances by the Crown Solicitor regarding the legality of the issue. Gold was officially valued at £3 11/ per ounce, with assaying charges set at a low 1%. The new Government Assay Office opened for business on February 10 with receipt of 29 deposits and the first ingots were actually made March 4. Only a handful of these oddly shaped ingots are known today. These were soon superseded by ''coin-tokens'' that it was announced would be struck in £5, £2, £1 and 10 Shilling denominations. Only the £1 pieces were struck in any quantity and in two varieties defined by a simple dotted circle or an ornamental circle on the reverse.
Mirroring the California experience, the hoped-for tokens were no sooner issued than complaints poured in from the public that had so ardently demanded the pieces. The Eastern colonies protested the whole venture, while Gold dust depositors alleged that actual production was far too slow and tied up their dust too long. Finally, there were altogether unfounded charges that the tokens were of lower fineness or weight than officially stated. Shiploads of Sovereigns of standard Victorian design were now arriving from London's Royal Mint, rendering the Adelaide Assay Office pieces redundant. Most of those issued were soon melted, leaving a mere handful for today's collectors. The few £5 pieces known today were struck by the Melbourne Mint years later.
Few Adelaide pieces have seen public sale in recent decades. The Extremely Fine John J. Ford Jr. example in Stack's January 2004 sale realized $20,000; John J. Pittman's About Uncirculated specimen brought $13,800 in 1999. The present spectacular coin that was long a highlight of the Louis E. Eliasberg Collection must place near the top of any listing of finest known examples existing today. Gem Brilliant Uncirculated. (Est. $70,000-$80,000)
Ex Louis E. Eliasberg Collection (American Numismatic Rarities, April 2005, lot 2345).
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