World War 1 Military ID Discs made from Coins

Posted on by msn

Despite being referred to as the “Hobby of Kings” coin collecting often involve the accumulation of what are mostly mundane objects.  Every day many coins pass our hands without being looked at, they are worn, damaged, and disposed of without a thought.  Coins are, after all, one of the most basic elements of commerce.  Despite their mundanity, coins can easily outlive the people that made and handled them by dozens of centuries.  Their longevity gives coin collectors a glimpse back into another time and it’s always a romantic notion to consider the people who handled coins that can be found in one’s collection.

The scant regard paid to current coins has often led to their modification or mutilation for a multitude of reasons.  These have included creation of gifts, making souvenirs, testing workshop equipment, making jewellery, making identification tags, or even “just because you can” (thinking of coins flattened on railways).  Collecting modified coins is not unusual and like most areas of coin collecting there are always opportunities for specialisation.  The subject of this article is one such area of specialisation, World War 1 military identity discs made from coins.  The authors have further restricted their focus to items created by Australian personnel and ideally the disc should include an Australian service number but this is not a hard and fast requirement.

Coins modified as identification discs give the collector a glimpse into the reasons why the disc was made.  In this article we will examine three such discs and postulate the reasons why the soldier made the item.

Identity Discs as Forget-Me-Not Tokens

“Forget-me-not pennies are base metal coins which have been hammered with letter and numeral punches to record a farewell message between two people” [1]

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows an Australian King George V penny that has been silvered and had a loop soldered to the top.  The reverse has been skimmed flat and stamped by hand with the following:

FORGET ME NOT
FROM
FRED
WITH FOND LOVE
TO
KITTY
2815

Frederick George Gifford, service number 2815 enlisted in Adelaide in 1916.  Gifford served in France in 1917 and 1918 before attending a course in the UK at the Tank Corps Depot.  He subsequently shipped back to Australia where he was part of the crew of the British MK IV tank numbered 4643[10].    The tank, eventually named “Grit”, toured Australia in 1918 and 1919 raising money for the war effort and to re-pay war loans.  After the tour concluded, the tank was retired to the Australian War Memorial where it is still on display.  Gifford’s records include a letter to the Officer Commanding Base Records from one “Miss Kitty C Pantzer” [6].

Lane, in his 2014 JNAA article “South Australian WW1 soldiers’ ‘forget-me-not’ pennies’” describes a peculiarly South Australian example of forget-me-not coins as “base-metal coins which have been hammered with letter and numeral punches to record a farewell message between two people”.   The token shown in Figure 1 is an excellent example of the type described by Lane.  It’s a token that was not produced by Fred Gifford directly and it was not even produced in France or the UK. It was made in a workshop in suburban Adelaide and given as a gift to Kitty so that she would remember Fred Gifford as he served in Europe.

There is little doubt that this lovely “forget-me-not” token was produced to convey some strong emotion between Fred Gifford and Kitty Pantzer.  Research by the authors has not been able to determine exactly what the nature of that relationship was, but it is very likely that this token is the only remaining physical reminder of it.

Identity Discs as Trench Art

“Trench art objects are holders of soldiers’ memories and reminders of the conflict they faced” [5]

It is commonly accepted that soldiers who have faced combat keep mementoes of those times as it provides them with comfort during and after what are, most likely, the most stressful times of their lives [7].  Trench art is one form that these souvenirs often took.  Rather inaccurately named [4][5] trench art comprises a range of items not necessarily made “in the trenches” but often made in workshops behind the lines, by soldiers, prisoners of war, or by civilians in areas that soldiers frequented.  It was made from virtually any available material such as shell casings, souvenirs taken from enemy soldiers, scrap metal, leather, and of course, coins!

Figure 2

Elaborately engraved coins are beautiful examples of such trench art, moving well beyond merely utilitarian items and becoming a record of one of life’s primary formative experiences, service in an active war zone [11].  Figure 2 shows an Egyptian 50 Piastres of 1917.  The obverse has been skimmed neatly inside the rim denticles and then engraved using the ‘wiggle-work’ technique.  The inscription reads:

DONOHOE
RC
No 1280
ANZAC
MTD DIVISION
AIF
EGYPT 1916•17•18

The quality of manufacture of this ID disc and the dates suggest it was made deliberately as a souvenir by a skilled craftsman.  The span of years allows the owner to gaze on this disc and cast his mind back to his time in army service.  Patrick Donohoe enlisted into the AIF in 1915 at Holdsworthy in New South Wales and was given the service number 1280 in No. 5 Squadron, 2nd Remount Unit of the AIF.  Examination of his records shows he served in Egypt in the AIF camp in Moascar and in the AIF canteens in the Suez.  Interestingly his records are under the surname Donohue (note the variation in spelling) and three separate papers in the records are clearly signed by three different people.  Once the surname is spelled “Donohue” and twice “Donohoe”, suggesting that perhaps Donohue may have been illiterate and had others sign his name for him.  It is rather enticing to think that when he had this lovely ID disc made that the correct spelling of Donohoe was used despite his official ID discs perhaps saying something different.

Identity Discs as Identity Discs

“Many soldiers have a horror of losing their identification discs, or of being unidentified if they are killed, and buried in a nameless grave” [3]

 

FIgure 3

For the first two years of World War 1 Australian soldiers were only required to wear one ID disc, an aluminium 1907 pattern disc (see Figure 3).  The soldier on the frontline saw slaughter and destruction on an “industrial scale” with wide spread use of artillery and machine gun fire that lead to not just death, but often the obliteration of soldier’s bodies.  The horror that soldiers had of dying and being unidentified resulted in many wearing ID bracelets, labelling their kit with ID tags, and making impromptu ID discs from coins that were worn about their bodies [2].  These utilitarian ID discs are often crudely manufactured and sometimes follow the form of official ID discs in listing name, service number, unit, and religion.  Other times they merely list a name and service number, the bare minimum that a soldier considered necessary to identify them in case the worst was to happen.  An unknown author wrote a short piece entitled “Soldier’s Fears” that appeared in many Australian and New Zealand newspapers in 1917 and 1918, and lists the idea of dying unknown and “being buried in a nameless grave” [3] as chief among those fears.

Figure 4 shows what is among the crudest impromptu ID disc made from a coin that the authors have sighted.  Crafted from a heavily worn “bunhead” British penny it has been simply made with 9 strikes of letter and numeral punches.  It bears just a surname, a service number, and the abbreviation AIF.  It is clearly not decorative and thus unlikely to be a souvenir, nor is it addressed to someone.  The only purpose can be that of identification and the hole shows that it was intended to be worn.

Click image to enlarge

John Berry enlisted in Melbourne in February 1915 and was taken onto the strength of the 23rd Battalion, 6th Infantry Brigade of the AIF [9].  He was given the service number 76.  John arrived in Egypt two days after Christmas in 1915 and just 23 days later was put into hospital with pneumonia.  Tragically he died 10 days later.  This ID disc hung from a chain along with a white-metal Canterbury Cathedral medallion from the well-known cathedral in Berry’s town of birth in England.  The two items are a contradiction, one created to help the man be identified if he meets a most horrible fate in a distant land, the other an embodiment of the hope that he would not suffer that fate and return home safely.  Sadly, in the case of John Berry this was not to be.

Conclusions

Coins and the history they contain are a primary motivation for many coin collectors.  Military ID discs made from coins are usually not historic or significant coins, in fact, they are often made from worthless coins.  However, the simple act of engraving or stamping a coin with some letters or numbers transforms it into a small memorial for a soldier who is long past, and often forgotten.  The reasons that soldiers craft coins into ID discs can vary and this can affect the coins they are made from, the level of care they are made with, and the inscriptions they contain. No longer does the collector need to imagine the people whose hands a coin has passed through.  With research the they can come to know, in some small way at least, the person who created the ID disc and their motivations for creating it.

References

  1. Lane, Peter. 2014: South Australian WWI soldiers ‘forget-me-not’ Pennies, JNAA Volume 25, pp 1-15
  2. Australian War Memorial : Australian identity discs of the First World War [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/ww1-identity-discs [Accessed 14 November 2021].
  3. Soldiers Fears, Maldon News, 2 October 1917, p4. Available at trove.nla.gov.au.
  4. Imperial War Museum : Trench Art [online] Available at: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/trench-art [Accessed 14 November 2021].
  5. National Army Museum : Personal Treasures [online] Available at: https://www.armymuseum.co.nz/whats-on/world-war-one-centenary/personal-treasures-wwi-trench-art/  [Accessed 14 November 2021].
  6. National Archives of Australia. 2017. Gifford Frederick George : SERN 2815 : POB Exeter SA : POE Adelaide SA : NOK M Gifford Ellen Jane. [ONLINE] Available at: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5033507. [Accessed 23 June 2017].
  7. US Army: Hunting for the Enemy and Souvenirs [online] Available at: https://www.army.mil/article/26504/hunting_for_the_enemy_and_souvenirs [Accessed 4 January 2022].
  8. National Archives of Australia, Donohue, Patrick : SERN 1280 : POB Galway, Ireland : POE Holdsworthy NSW : NOK Donohue, Dora. [ONLINE] Available at:  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3514841 [Accessed 15 August 2021]
  9. National Archives of Australia, Berry, John : SERN 76 : POB Canterbury, England : POE Melbourne, VIC : NOK Berry, Mark. [ONLINE] Available at:  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B= 3075840
  10. Finlayson, D.A., Pioneers of Australian Armour. 1st ed. Big Sky Publishing: Newport, NSW Australia.
  11. Slade, L., Sappers & Shrapnel. 1st ed. Art Gallery of South Australia: Adelaide, SA Australia.

 

Posted in Collectables and Ephemera, Collecting Coins

Coin Collecting – Asking Questions on Social Media

Posted on by msn

Figure 1 Australia 1979 2c Struck on Scrap Planchet

Several months ago I saw a collector post images of an Australian penny struck on a defective and incomplete planchet onto a well known Facebook coin group. The collector wasn’t sure if the coin was a genuine error, and if it was, what it actually was. The error itself was spectacular and not dis-similar to the 1979 two cent struck on a scrap planchet as shown in Figure 1.

A few well known coin identities correctly identified that the penny in question was indeed a genuine error and went on to explain how it had come about. Unfortunately those tiny voices were drowned out by the veritable chorus of comments bellowing “damage” and “PMD” and “I could make that with a grinder”. I doubt the original poster of the interesting penny error knew which opinion to believe. To their credit they took the time to send images to a well known Australian coin collector who verified that the penny was indeed a genuine error. It’s unfortunate that this even had to happen but it shows us that:

“Social media is wonderful because it gives everyone a voice and an opinion. Social media is terrible because it gives everyone a voice and an opinion.”

The above is paraphrased from a video I made several weeks ago. In that video I said that the power of social media is undeniable but when concerning technical matters it is often nothing more than terrible. The internet empowers people to spend a few minutes reading or watching videos, form a bad opinion and then voice that opinion. Unfortunately the democratisation of many forms of social media can give that opinion the same weight as subject matter experts. In the case of the penny error mentioned earlier this was very much the case, with correct opinions being drowned out by arguments put forward by posters who clearly had no actual knowledge of even the basics of coin manufacturing.

“..the one thing people are most likely to be ignorant of is the extent of their own ignorance—where it starts, where it ends, and all the space it fills in-between”[1]

The above was said by David Dunning, a well known American psychologist and co-author of a paper with Justin Kruger in 1999 called “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments”. In that paper they proposed a cognitive bias called “The Dunning-Kruger Effect”.

One aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect was measured by asking people of low ability in a particular subject area to self-assess what they knew about that subject then to objectively measure their actual knowledge. This was done across a wide range of subject areas and it was found that people with a low level ability in a particular subject consistently over-estimated their abilities in that area[2]. Subsequent studies conducted by others across have shown a similar bias present in a wide range of subject areas.

I propose that this aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect is alive and well in coin groups on social media. Often new collectors with little knowledge of numismatics are those who express their opinions the loudest and many times those opinions are terribly wrong. How can this problem be addressed?

I am an advocate for strong moderation on technical coin groups on social media. If you’re going to run a technical coin group on social media be prepared to delete mis-information and incorrect opinions. If you don’t then your group reflects badly on yourself and is actually detracting from the hobby rather than adding to it.

If you’ve got a technical question about a coin, seek out subject matter experts and ask them directly rather than making general posts on social media. If you don’t you’ll be bombarded with answers and you won’t know which ones are educated and which ones are delivered from a foundation of ignorance.

If you’re a new collector, resist the temptation to offer up opinions on subjects you know little about. Remember “the one thing people are most likely to be ignorant of is the extent of their own ignorance”. In other words, you don’t even know what you don’t know.

If you’re a new collector, always seek to educate yourself. Seek out subject matter experts, read everything you can, subscribe to magazines, consult reputable websites, and never stop asking questions. No-one was born an expert and we all had to start somewhere.

[1] Dunning, David; (2011). “The Dunning–Kruger Effect: On Being Ignorant of One’s Own Ignorance”. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 44, Chapter 5. ISSN 0065-2601

[2] Schlösser, Thomas; Dunning, David; Johnson, Kerri L.; Kruger, Justin (1 December 2013). “How unaware are the unskilled? Empirical tests of the “signal extraction” counter-explanation for the Dunning–Kruger effect in self-evaluation of performance”. Journal of Economic Psychology. 39: 85–100. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2013.07.004. ISSN 0167-4870. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2021.

A version of this article was originally published in the free online coin mazazine, Independent Coin News.

Posted in Collecting Coins

Great Britain 1988 20p Rim Cud

Posted on by msn

Figure 1 Great Britain 1988 20p Obverse Rim Cud

Having been in and around error collecting for 15 years I often see the new error collector lusting after spectacular errors or varieties that are worth many hundreds or thousands of dollars. The unfortunate reality is that not all of us have large collecting budgets and we must derive satisfaction from error or variety coins that can be obtained less expensively. Figure 1 shows just such a coin. It’s a Great Britain 20 pence dated 1988 and the observant among you might note that the obverse has a large blob on the upper right quadrant of the obverse. I found this coin recently in a bag of UK currency that passed over our counter. Despite handling many thousands of coins each week I still got a thrill when I found it. When I stop getting that thrill I know it will be time to give this game away!

The blob on the rim is known as a “rim cud”. This occurred because the obverse die actually fractured and part of the design flaked away. When a coin was struck after the die had broken the metal of the planchet filled the broken area forming the cud as shown. Of course the metal that fills the cud has to come from somewhere and in the case of large cuds like this one there is usually strike weakness on the opposite side of the coin. If we consider the reverse of the coin in the upper left quadrant we can clearly see weakness in the NT of TWENTY. This area of weakness is directly opposite the obverse rim cud.

Once the die has broken every coin struck displays a rim cud in the same area. In some cases the die may continue to deteriorate and the cud actually grows and changes shape. This is known as die progression and it can be an interesting exercise to hunt out rim cuds as they grow and change shape. Personally I find this pursuit of cud progression to be especially satisfying as you know that each coin was struck with the same die pair! It’s satisfying because being able to nail down two different coins from a mintage of many millions to the same die pair is usually very difficult to do.

It’s worth talking quickly about the nomenclature of “rim cud”. There is no certain origin of the word “cud” but some suggest it stands for “Coin Under Development”. I find this nonsensical and doubt it to be true. What is certain is that generally numismatists agree on the distinction between a “cud” and a “die chip”. A “cud” is a die break that involves the shank or edge of the coin die. In contrast, a “die chip” is a die break that does NOT involve the shank or edge of the coin die and is in the middle area of the die somewhere. Those familiar with the Australian “rabbit ear” dollars should know that the so-called “rabbit ears” are not cuds, but die chips.

A version of this article was originally published in the free online coin mazazine, Independent Coin News.

Posted in Error Coins

The Rabbit Ear Variety – Mob of Roos Dollar

Posted on by msn

What Went Wrong – Error coins that escaped the Mint

Those of you who are noodlers, or those that look closely and intently at their change will notice that quite often extra “features” can show up on a coin’s design. They appear as a coin die strikes more and more coins and wears or becomes damaged, appearing as raised lines or raised blobs. The lines are die-cracks, and (rather obviously) are caused because the coin die cracks and the coin metal fills those cracks. The “blobs” occur as bits of the coin die actually break off and the coin metal fills the new voids in the die. If the unintended blobs appear on the rim of the coin (because part of the die shank has broken) they are called “cuds”. If they appear in the centre of the coin’s design they are called “die-chips”.

Figure 1 Australia 2016 Rabbit Ear Die Chips

The natural pattern-seeking brains of coin noodlers have sometimes given descriptive terms to these die chips, a phenomenon known as pareidolia. The best known of these in Australian coin collecting circles is the “rabbit-ear” dollar. Known as such because of the typically elongated die chip that tends to form on mob-of-roos dollars. It usually forms on the top-most kangaroo of the iconic five kangaroo design, an unintended ear sitting behind coin designer Stuart Devlin’s intended set of ears. Figure 1 shows a 2016 mob-of-roos dollar with a lovely rabbit-ear die chip clearly apparent. A word of warning to the new noodler, the rabbit-ear die chip should touch the actual ear of the kangaroo and not be isolated in the middle of the kangaroo’s back! Why? Because rabbit-ear purists call that isolated die-chip a “back-pack”. Let’s not even get started on “spew-roos” and “double-tails” and “flea-ears” because those are stories for another day.

One of the most interesting things about rabbit-ear dollars is that they are not confined to one year. In fact, they have been found on numerous years. We have observed rabbit-ear die chips on coins from 1984, 1985, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. The rabbit-ear die chip is different each year as each die breaks in a unique way. Figures 2 and 3 show close ups of rabbit-ears on 2016 and 2010 dollar coins and each is clearly different.

Figure 2 2016 Dollar Rabbit Ears Detail

Figure 3 2010 Dollar Rabbit Ears Detail

What does this more than 30 year of rabbit-ear die chip history tell us? It tells us that the region just behind that top-most kangaroo is clearly a weak spot that tends to crack and break as a coin die is subjected to the rigours of striking thousands of coins. One possible reason for this being a weak spot is the acute angle that the kangaroo’s ears and back form with the field of the coin. This sharp angle could be a ‘stress-raiser’, an area of localised higher stresses and strains which leads to it breaking off in time.

The really great thing about rabbit-ear dollars is that each year the Royal Australian Mint strikes mob-of-roos dollars they are potentially creating a new variety dollar to add to your existing warren of rabbit-ear dollars!

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

Posted in Error Coins

2016 Dollar Coin Struck on Ten Cent Planchet

Posted on by msn

As originally published in Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine in October 2022.

What Went Wrong -error coins that escaped the Mint

2016 Dollar Coin Struck on Ten Cent Planchet

Join with us, for a few minutes at least, as we conduct a thought exercise. Imagine a factory in South Korea that manufactures millions of coin blanks for the Royal Australian Mint. On one particular day in 2015 or 2016 that factory punches out thousands of 5.65g copper-nickel (ten cent coin) blanks that are fed via chutes into drums before being shipped to Australia. Some time during that production process one of the 10c blanks gets stuck in one of those chutes or perhaps somewhere else in the machinery and doesn’t end up in a drum with other 10c blanks. Let us now imagine that these machines change over to the manufacture of 9g aluminium-bronze blanks (for Australian dollar coins). During that production run our rogue copper-nickel 10c blank is dislodged and ends up in a drum of $1 blanks.

That drum makes its way to Australian shores where weeks or months later the Royal Australian Mint’s mighty Titan robot lifts the heavy drums with ease. These blanks are struck into 2016 Mob of Roos dollar coins in the circulating coin hall. Unknown to the operators of the coin presses, our rogue 10c blank is also struck with $1 dies and is sent out into circulation with many millions of other normal $1 coins. Maybe it’s rolled or bagged by Prosegur and ends up as your change for the Sunday newspaper! That $1 coin is different but passes through a few hands before being put aside by a sharp-eyed person and left in a drawer, forgotten for a few years. Fast forward those few years and perhaps this coin is brought into our Adelaide coin shop much to the author’s delight!

Figure 1 shows a 2016 dated dollar coin that is struck on a 5.6g copper-nickel planchet. The same type of planchet that Australian 10c coins are struck on. Did this amazing error coin result from the process we’ve described above? Well, of course we cannot know for certain but it is certainly one way it could have happened, because this type of mishap has happened before!

The legendary USA 1943 bronze Lincoln cent error occurred because “a few bronze planchets became stuck in tote bins”[1] when they were refilled with steel planchets. All 1943 Lincoln cents were supposed to be struck on steel planchets. 15-25 of these bronze Lincoln cents exist and they are worth a hundred thousand dollars or more.

By comparison, the 2016 $1 error shown here is a relative bargain, and perhaps worth a few thousand dollars. But for those few thousand dollars you would get an amazing wrong-planchet Australian error coin with lovely strike weakness around the perimeter of the design, a poorly formed rim, and the spectacular appearance of a silver-coloured dollar coin.

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

1. Coin Week : US Coin Profile – 1943-S Lincoln Cent Error Struck on a Bronze Planchet [online] 26 December 2017. Available at: https://coinweek.com/us-coins/us-coin-profile-1943-s-lincoln-cent-struck-bronze-planchet/ [Accessed 14 August 2022].

Posted in Error Coins

The Milk Tin Hoard

Posted on by msn

A version of this article was originally published in the May 2024 edition of the free online coin mazazine, Independent Coin News.

Figure 1 The Milk Tin


At about 3pm on a Wednesday in mid-February 2024, a young man walked into our coin shop holding a small canvas bag in one hand and a large silver tin with a red label in the other.  As he placed them on the counter where we handle all of our purchasing, the bag made a distinctive clinking sound, a sound we’ve heard many times before, that of silver coins moving gently against each other.  The tin, perhaps 35cm high and 20cm in diameter, had a bold red and cream logo that read “VI-LACTOGEN FOR INFANTS” (Figure 1).

As always, we asked our customer where he’d come across his items.  He said, “This is just a small part of what I found in a house that my company owned and was demolishing”.  He went on, “I’ve had them for a couple of years and finally opened some of the tins and found some coins in them,. I’ve brought them in to sell but I’m not expecting much”.  Knowing there were coins in the bag we asked, “What’s in the tin?”

If you look closely at the image of the tin in Figure 1, you’ll see the remnants of solder that sealed it closed.  The customer broke the solder, lifted off the lid, and inside we saw a stack of hundreds of banknotes!  A quick flick through the stack revealed many Australian ten shilling banknotes, all with the distinctive orange colour of those issued under King George VI.  Concealing our excitement we asked if we could also look in the canvas bag and when gaining permission we found 240 circulated 1942 florins.  They were minted at both the Royal Mint branch in Melbourne and the US Mint branch in San Francisco.

“So do you think I might get a few hundred dollars?” asked the customer.  “Uh yes,” we replied, “We think you’ll get a fair bit more than that mate”.  Needless to say, after some negotiation, we purchased the banknotes in the tin, the coins in the bag, and many kilos of other coins that were part of this hoard.  After such a large purchase we were left somewhat stunned, and our customer was planning a rather unexpected but elaborate European holiday!  It’s not the first time we’ve bought a group of banknotes found in a house undergoing demolition.  To put The Milk Tin Hoard into context, those other hoards had 20, or even 30 notes but certainly not the 219 ten bob notes contained in the old baby formula tin (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The 219 ten shilling notes comprising the Milk Tin Hoard

Note Hoard Composition and Condition

Once we’d taken ownership of the notes, we took them out of the tin and sorted them by signatories and grades.  Table 1 shows a breakdown of the notes in the hoard, using Renniks3 reference numbers:

 

Signatories First Issued Ref. Count
Sheehan / McFarlane 1939 R-12 8
Armitage / McFarlane 1942 R-13 137
Coombs / Watt 1949 R-14 54
Coombs / Wilson 1952 R-15 20
Total: 219

Table 1 – Hoard Composition by Signatories

Condition is paramount for banknotes and our next task was to sort and grade them.  We were hoping this would give us some idea of when the notes were put in the tin.  Figure 3 plots the condition of the notes of each signatory pair, the data normalised to allow easy comparison.  It can be seen that 40% of the newer Coombs / Wilson 10/- notes in the hoard grade Very Fine or better, while the oldest Sheehan / McFarlane notes are low grade, being Very Good at best.  Given the relatively quick rate at which paper banknotes degrade in circulation, this suggests to us that the notes were removed from circulation not long after Coombs / Wilson 10/- (R-15) notes were first issued in 1952.

Figure 3 – Note Grade by Signatories (Normalised)

Star Notes

The first question we are always asked by anyone when they’ve found out that we have purchased a large group of banknotes is “Are there any star notes?”  Australian pre-decimal star notes, or star replacement notes were printed with their own serial prefixes separate from normal notes.  A star note was identified with a five-digit serial, and then a star or asterisk to the right of the serial.  They were designed to replace damaged or misprinted notes in the production process.  This way the note printing authorities could ensure that the correct number of notes was in each production bundle.

In Australia star notes were first issued on banknotes with the Armitage / McFarlane signatories and it is believed only for the last year or so of the print run.  This makes them some of the harder to find star notes of the pre-decimal series.

Of course, we love checking hoards of banknotes for star notes as much as anyone, and we were pleased (as was the customer) that the hoard of 219 banknotes netted five star notes.  Details of the five notes are shown in Table 2.

 

Signatories First Issued Ref. Serial Grade
Armitage / McFarlane 1942 R-13s G/64 00172* aFine
Armitage / McFarlane 1942 R-13sL G/95 73269* Fine
Coombs / Watt 1949 R-14s G/99 68223* VG
Coombs / Watt 1949 R-14s A/1 64660* gVF
Coombs / Wilson 1952 R-15s A/4 85027* gVF

Table 2 – Star Notes

 

Figure 4 shows the better of the two Armitage / McFarlane star notes. This note also happens to be the last star note prefix issued for that signatory pair.

Figure 4. Armitage / MacFarlane Ten Shilling Star Note from the hoard.

Dating the Hoard

It’s always an interesting exercise to try to determine when a hoard was stored.  In the case of this hoard, it must date to 1952 or later because the R-15 Coombs / Wilson notes were first issued in that year.  Interestingly the group contained no 10/- notes issued under Queen Elizabeth so it’s reasonable to date it between 1952 and 1954.  If we consider the silver coins that were also part of the hoard none of those date after 1946.  Additionally, in some of the bags of coins there were scraps of paper with two sets of handwriting, one early notation in fountain pen confirming the number of coins and face value in a bag, and a check calculation in ball point pen that was dated in April 1974.

What about the baby formula tins that housed the hoard?  A search of the wonderful website Trove (trove.nla.gov.au) quickly turned up very similar tins in advertisements from the 1940’s.  Figure 5 shows just such an example, as found in the 19th of July 1945 edition of the Evening Advocate in Innisfail, Queensland (image courtesy Trove).

Given all the evidence, we’ll put a tentative date on the hoard in the mid-1950’s, say 1954, which is before QE2 notes were available and might explain why such a high percentage of the Coombs / Wilson R-15 notes were in better condition.

219 Ten Shilling Notes in the mid-1950s

It’s hard to wrap up this article without examining what the real value of 219 ten bob notes was in the mid-1950s.  The notes add up to a face value of £109/10.   The Year Book Australia, 19541 lists the average weekly pay for an adult male in 1952 as £13/18/2.  Our tin of notes was therefore, almost exactly 8 weeks of an average adult male’s pay, which in today’s dollars2 would equate to almost $16,000.

Figure 5. Contemporary advertisement for Lactogen.


Why would the cash have been hoarded?  For a reader in 2024, it’s not too difficult to understand with our media littered with references of the public distrusting banks and hoarding cash6,7.  In fact, the Reserve Bank of Australia recently said that “Banknotes that are hoarded – that is, held, either domestically or overseas, as a store-of-value, for emergency liquidity or for other such purposes.”4 and goes on to say that “Hoarding, both domestically and internationally, is the most significant component of banknote demand. Hoarding is usually done for store-of-wealth or precautionary motives.”4

Reports like this tempt us to think that cash hoarding is a new thing, but of course, it is not.  The person (or people) who hoarded our 219 banknotes were the product of the Great Depression (1929-1939) and then World War II (1939-1945).  An almost sixteen-year period of financial and personal hardship for billions of people worldwide when hoarding of cash and other valuables was commonplace.

The problem became so bad in some countries that their governments passed laws against hoarding with the US Treasury saying in 1933: “No banking institution shall permit any withdrawal by any person when such institution, acting in good faith, shall deem that the withdrawal is intended for hoarding.”5.

Conclusions

The authors consider this to be a purchase of a lifetime as it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see a hoard of this size in our shop again.  We will document the hoard to the best of our ability and this article forms part of that effort.  When the notes are sold, we will also ensure that some form of provenance is also supplied with them so that future owners know of their origins.

 

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

References

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia, 1954, 1 January 1954, https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1301.01954?OpenDocument [Accessed 24 February 2024]
  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, 22 February 2024, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/average-weekly-earnings-australia/nov-2023 [Accessed 24 February 2024]
  3. Pitt, Michael : Renniks Australian Coin & Banknote Values. NSW, 2023. 31st ed. Print.
  4. Elkington, Patrick. Guttman, Rochelle. Reserve Bank of Australia, Understanding the Post-pandemic Demand for Australia’s Banknotes, 22 January 2024, https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2024/jan/understanding-the-post-pandemic-demand-for-australias-banknotes.html [Accessed 25 February 2024]
  5. Silber, William. Why Did FDR’s Bank Holiday Succeed? FRBNY Financial Policy Review, July 2009. ttps://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/epr/09v15n1/0907silb.pdf [Accessed 25 February 2024]
  6. Rochelle Guttmann, Charissa Pavlik, Benjamin Ung and Gary Wang, Cash Demand during COVID-19, March 2021. https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2021/mar/pdf/cash-demand-during-covid-19.pdf [Accessed 29 March 2024]
  7. Nassim Khadem, Australians are hoarding more banknotes but how far away is a cashless society in a digital world? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-05/australians-hoarding-banknotes-but-using-less-cash-to-transact/101777190 [Accessed 29 March 2024]

Appendix 1 – List of Notes in Hoard

The Milk Tin Hoard - List of Notes



Posted in Coin News, Collecting Coins

1967 ACR Pattern Swan Dollar (Goose Dollar) by Andor Meszaros

Posted on by msn
1967 Goose Dollar

1967 Goose Dollar

The 1967 “Goose” dollar is not an official issue, although it does hold an important part in Australia’s numismatic history. The Swan Pattern dollar has been nicknamed the “Goose dollar” by collectors and has risen in popularity in the past few years.

When decimal currency was to be introduced in 1966, collectors were surprised to learn that a one dollar coin would not be included in the new issues. So, in 1965 the Australian Coin Review magazine ran a competition and the winning entry submitted to the Australian government. When this coin was rejected by the authorities, competition organizers decided to have it minted privately .

In 1967 it was engraved and struck by John Pinches medallists of London. The design, by Andor Meszaros features a swan with Australia 1967 on the obverse and wattle with 100 (cents) printed on the reverse. On the obverse (swan side) at approximately 4 o’clock right next to the rim are the designers initials which may be mistaken as a scuff on the coin surface.

There were 1500 specimen uncirculated silver coins issued that featured a milled edge, 750 proof pieces with a plain edge and 10 gold with the plain edge. The silver proof was originally available at $13.50 while the silver uncirculated examples were $10. The gold proofs were $145 including a box and postage. It is believed 2 of the gold coins were lost in the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 (John Gartner collection) so it could be said that there are only 8 in existence. John’s house at Mount Macedon in Victoria was destroyed with the coins along with the actual dies used to strike the coins. All coins were originally issued in a maroon coloured case inscribed with “Australian Pattern Crown” inside the lid and in the case for the proofs, the word “proof” was added.

Gold Proof Swan Pricing – ACR February 1968, Page 2

Specifications differ between the gold and silver issues. All are 38 milimetres in diameter and the silver releases weigh 28.7 grams and the 22ct gold 40.3 grams.

Renniks Australian Coin and Banknote Values 32nd Edition catalogue (2023) value for these coins is currently $2,750 for the uncirculated coin (issued at $10), $3,200 for the silver proof ($13.50 issue price) and $35,000 for the gold proof.

Update July 2009 : A gold goose dollar sold on eBay in July 2009 for $12,500. Another gold goose sold at the Nobles Sales 103 in 2013 for $18,000 plus commission on an estimate of $8,000, a very strong price.

Update 10 July 2015 : The latest McDonalds catalogue (2014) values the milled edge, circulation issue at $2250 and the proof at $2450. However, the Goose Dollar market is now largely dominated by third party graded coins (PCGS in particular). Ungraded coins (proof or milled edge) have been selling raw for between $1500-$2000. Graded coins in the MS/PR64-MS/PR66 range fetch similar prices while MS/PR67 or better can expect to fetch quite a bit more. A 1967 Goose dollar is likely to be worth a few hundred dollars more if it comes with an original box, regardless of whether the coin is slabbed or not. As of July 2015 there were 3 MS68’s graded by PCGS (8 MS67’s) and 2 PR68’s (no PR67’s).

Update April 2017: A gold swan pattern dollar recently sold at Nobles Sale 114 28-31 March 2017. From the personal collection of E Cummings (Edlins of Canberra) the gold pattern of which there may only be 8 still in existence sold for $24,500 plus 19.25% buyers premium, that’s $29,216.25 wow what a result!

1967 Unofficial Pattern Dollar in Gold (image courtesy Noble Numismatics Pty Ltd)

1967 Unofficial Pattern Dollar in Gold (image courtesy Noble Numismatics Pty Ltd)

Update June 2024: Pricing information added for the gold proofs as found in Australian Coin Review magazine. Catalogue values updated from latest version of Renniks catalogue.

Posted in Australian Decimal Changeover, Collecting Coins

Great Britain 1988 One Penny Faulty Planchet Error

Posted on by msn

As originally published in Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine in September 2022.

What Went Wrong -error coins that escaped the Mint

Figure 1 – Great Britain 1988 One Penny Struck on Faulty Planchet Error

We’re going to discuss an error coin this month that originated from an overseas mint. A mint that, in times of need, has struck Australian coins. If you have an interest in collecting error coins you will realise some error types are rarely seen on Australian coins. Often those error types are more easily found on a coin from another country and still fit nicely into a collection. Even better, often errors on foreign coins are found at just a fraction of the price that a similar Australian coin error may cost.

The error coin featured this month (Figure 1) is a Great Britain one penny dated 1988. At first glance it looks perhaps like someone with a Dremel in the tool shop was attempting to carve it into shape for a jewellery piece. It is severely underweight at 2.75g instead of 3.56g, but you don’t have to be an error expert to guess that would be the case. But is it actually an error or a fabrication? Closer inspection by the knowledgeable collector indicates that it is indeed a real error and not someone’s metal-work project.

There are two features seen on this coin that suggest it is a genuine error. The first is the jagged edge planchet flaws to the left of the N of PENNY on the reverse. This is typical of metal impurity in the planchet that may fall out either before or after the coin is struck.

Figure 2 – Great Britain 1988 One Penny Struck on Faulty Planchet Error Detail

The second feature is one we’ve spoken about before in a different context, but the principle still applies here. Just as metal flows into the void of a clipped planchet, metal can be seen to have flowed into the missing area of this coin. On the obverse, the second I of ELIZABETH II is skinny which is an example of elongated fishtailing. The fault edges, in particular through HM’s neck are also tapered indicating there was no restriction on the metal at the time of the strike. Figure 2 shows close up detail of the crown above the portcullis on the reverse where fishtailing has again occurred with metal flowing into the void.

Thus, we have a genuine error here, a coin struck on a faulty planchet. But why was the planchet faulty? This coin’s planchet was cut from an area of a rolled metal strip that had a rather large inclusion present. This inclusion, in the most part, fell away from the planchet before the coin was struck.

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

Posted in Error Coins

Australia 1956 Florin Struck Out of Collar Error

Posted on by msn

As originally published in Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine in August 2022.

What Went Wrong -error coins that escaped the Mint

Figure 1 – Australia 1956 Florin Struck Out of Collar Error

If you’ve been reading our articles each month you will be familiar with the collar die, the third die used when striking coins. It is an integral part of the coining process as it is one way of imparting edge design such as reeding. For a round coin, the collar die is shaped like a hollow cylinder and constrains the blank as the coin is struck. This ensures all coins struck are relatively uniform in shape and size and that they adhere to specifications.

The coin we see in Figure 1 is not uniform in shape and does not adhere to the exacting specifications of the Australian florin. Also, it does not show any edge reeding whatsoever. Was this coin struck without that essential third (collar) die?

Due to the complete lack of edge reeding, we can most certainly say yes. The coin was clearly not constrained when struck resulting in a coin with a larger diameter than specified. It is also out-of-round and would most certainly be rejected in coin counting and rolling machines. The nickname for this error-type, the “pancake” came about from the noticeably enlarged and distorted planchet.

Figure 2 – Australia 1956 Florin Struck Out of Collar Error Detail

Is there any more evidence of the lack of a collar die? The answer is yes. The legends around the entire obverse and reverse have fish-tailing of the lettering which is an indication of radial metal flow (see Figure 2). The coin metal in the letters has flowed outwards leaving a deficit of metal towards the centre of the coin giving rise to the clear ‘fish-tail’ shape of each letter. Similarly, the stars around FLORIN on the reverse have a strange drawn-out appearance as again, the metal flowed into the parts of the stars closest to the rim. Finally note the smeared look of the reverse rim denticles rather than being the neat tooth-shaped features they should be (see Figure 2).

The force of the strike has also spread the planchet so much that it is larger in diameter than the dies striking it, which meant parts of the planchet were not struck at all. These unstruck areas are seen behind Her Majesty’s head on the obverse and from 10 o’clock to 5 o’clock on the reverse.

This 1956 florin struck completely out of collar is a superb error coin in lovely uncirculated condition. It is particularly appealing to error collectors as it is struck on a relatively large silver coin, certainly making it much harder to find and thus more desirable.

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

Posted in Error Coins

Australia 1966-1984 Ten Cent Die Adjustment Strike Error

Posted on by msn

As originally published in Australasian Coin and Banknote Magazine in June 2022.

What Went Wrong -error coins that escaped the Mint

Figure 1 – Australia 1966-1984 Die Adjustment Strike Error

Manufacturing coins is a high-pressure business, both figuratively and literally! What sorts of pressures are involved in making a coin? 35 tonnes and upward, with some sources suggesting proof coins need striking pressures of 500 tonnes and more [1]. Of course, the higher the pressure the more potential for damage and wear to both the coin dies and the coin press. On the other hand, if the pressure is too low the coin will be poorly struck and not meet the exacting standards that countries demand of their circulating coinage.

The coin shown with this article has clearly been struck at the lower end of the pressure range. Observe that the centre of the coin shows the ten cent design as you’d expect, the chin and hair of the Arnold Machin portrait of the Queen, and the feathers of the lyrebird as sculpted by Stuart Devlin. Move out toward the rim though, and the design fades smoothly until nothing is present at all. Note also that the characteristics of the strike are very similar on both sides. Clearly the coin shown is an error but what type of error?

The error coin here is usually called a ‘die adjustment strike’. The theory being that when a coin press and set of dies are first set up the press operator will gradually wind up the striking pressure to achieve a balance between quality of strike and minimising die wear and tear. As the pressure changes these ‘die adjustment strike’ coins are created. Presumably the test strikes would be collected up and scrapped for re-processing but every now and again one might sneak into the production coins and escape into circulation. It’s a nice theory and we’d like to think that this is how this coin came to be.

Of course, you’d see EXACTLY the same effect if there was a temporary fluctuation in striking pressure during a production run. This might be due to some sort of machine failure and could result in dozens of low-pressure strike coins being made and reaching circulation. We’ll never know if the coin shown was created as part of the setup process of a coin press or if it was a genuine error created during a production run of coins. Either way it managed to escape the Royal Australian Mint sometime between 1966 and 1984 and is a fine example of the so-called ‘die adjustment strike’ error.

Mark Nemtsas and Kathryn Harris own and run ‘The Purple Penny’ coin shop in Adelaide and are passionate about error coins.

  1. United States Mint : Coin Production [online] Available at: https://www.usmint.gov/learn/production-process/coin-production [Accessed 10 April 2022].
Posted in Error Coins

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