Australia's first coin was made by cutting a hole in someone else's.

The colony of New South Wales had almost no currency. In 1813 Governor Lachlan Macquarie bought forty thousand Spanish silver dollars, punched the centres out of them, and turned one coin into two: the ring became the Holey Dollar, the punched-out middle became the Dump. It was a beautiful piece of improvisation, and it gave the colony its first money.

Those Spanish dollars had been struck in colonial Mexican mints and carried across the Pacific on trade routes. Which makes the timing of this release rather good. Australia and Mexico mark sixty years of diplomatic relations in 2026, a connection that turns out to run more than a century and a half deeper than the paperwork suggests.

The 2026 $1 Origins Of Australian Coin - Holey Dollar Uncirculated Coin is available in Australia from Direct Coins - leading authorised distributor for the Royal Australian Mint since 2012.