2019-11-01 Fri

Recently, a story about an extremely rare Australian coin had been posted on a social networking site which sent Australians on a treasure hunt.

According to the story a man found one of the 1813 'holey dollar' in a jar full of mixed pennies and foreign coins.

The 1813 holey dollar was the first coin minted in the colony of New South Wales and is a highly valuable piece of Australian history.

The outer ring, called the 'holey dollar', was worth five shillings while the center 'dump' was worth 15 pence.

These holey dollars have an expected worth of about $40,000 in very poor condition up to $500,000 for a coin in excellent condition.

The center dump will go from $1000 for a very poor example up to $60,000 for the finest coins.

The celebration was short-lived however as experts pointed out it was one of many copies made of the valuable coin.

The tell-tale sign is that there is a barely legible stamp of the word 'copy' in the top left quarter of the coin, just above the crown where the number 9 would be on a clock face.

Image Courtesy: Daily Mail