Holey Dollar and Dump - A History 1788 – 1822

Holey Dollar and Dump – A History 1788 – 1822

1813 Holey Dollar – 200 years commemorating Australia Coinage

Australia Silver Holey Dollar from 1803 Spanish Carlos IIII 8 Reale

When the colony of New South Wales was founded in Australia in 1788, it ran into the problem of a lack of coinage. Foreign coins – including British, Dutch, Indian and Portuguese – were common in the early years, but much of this coin left the colony by way of trade with visiting merchant ships.

To overcome this shortage of coins, Governor Lachlan Macquarie took the initiative of using £10,000 in Spanish dollars sent by the British government to produce suitable coins in a similar manner to that described above. These coins to the value of 40,000 Spanish dollars came on 26 November 1812 on HMS Samarang from Madras, via the East India Company.

Governor Macquarie had a convicted forger named William Henshall cut the centres out of the coins and counter stamp them.The central plug (known as a dump) was valued at 15 pence (i.e., 1 shilling, 3 pence, or 1s 3d), and was restruck with a new design (a crown on the obverse, the denomination on the reverse), whilst the holey dollar received an overstamp around the hole (“New South Wales 1813″ on the obverse, “Five Shillings” on the reverse). This distinguished the coins as belonging to the colony of New South Wales, creating the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in NSW. The combined nominal value in NSW of the holey dollar and the dump was 6s 3d, or 25 percent more than the value of a Spanish dollar; this made it unprofitable to export the coins from the colony.

The project to convert the 40,000 Spanish coins took over a year to complete. Of the 40,000 Spanish dollars imported, 39,910 holey dollars and 39,910 dumps were made, with the balance assumed to have been spoiled during the conversion process. The converted coins went into circulation in 1814.

From 1822 the government began to recall the coins and replace them with sterling coinage. By the time the holey dollar was finally demonetised in 1829, most of the 40,000 coins in circulation had been exchanged for legal tender and melted down into bullion. Experts estimate that only 350 Holey dollars and 1500 dumps remain. The rarity of the Australian holey dollar ensures that even those in relatively poor condition are valuable. There are many stories of holey dollars being found in unusual circumstances.

ALSO OF INTEREST

• Holey Dollar and Dump
• Australian Holey Dollar and Dump 200th Anniversary 2013 Silver Proof Coin Set
• 2013 $1 Silver Proof Coin - Bicentenary of the Holey Dollar and Dump "C" Mintmark

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/perth-mint-silver/holey-dollar-and-dump/holey-dollar-and-dump/#sthash.3NubI2qi.dpuf

Battle of the Coral Sea Silver 1/2 oz and Gold 1/10th oz

Battle of the Coral Sea Silver 1/2 oz and Gold 1/10th oz Bullion Rounds from Goldwire

These Limited Production 1/10 oz. Gold Bullion and a ½ oz. Silver Bullion Coins Honor Allied Forces Who Fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Battle of the Coral Sea Silver 1/2 oz and Gold 1/10th oz Bullion

The Coral Sea bullion coins display a WWII battleship encircled by the words, “Battle of the Coral Sea War in the Pacific 1941-45.”

The gold coin contains one-tenth ounce .9999 fine gold and the silver coin contains one-half ounce .999 fine silver. 

These coins are Australian legal tender and, due to their purity, may be included in precious metals IRAs. The Perth Mint, the official mint of the Western Australian government, enjoys a reputation for innovation and superb quality.

2014 Great White Shark Half Ounce Silver Bullion Coin 50c Perth Mint

The 2014 Great White Shark coin comes in multiples of 25, each housed in a protective tube. Every purchase of 20 tubes (500 coins) comes in an additional ‘monster box’ free-of-charge.

Thanks to our volume discount, the tremendous value offered by a tube of Great White Shark coins gets even better when you purchase a full box. Also, bear in mind that this coin’s maximum mintage is only 300,000, ensuring it will soon become extremely scarce.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Product Code	14V69AAX
Metal Content (Troy oz)	0.500
Fineness (% purity)	99.90
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	15.591
Monetary Denomination (AUD)	0.50
Maximum Diameter (mm)	32.000
Maximum Thickness (mm)	3.100

XAG 2014 Buffalo Silver Medallion Bullion Round

This fantastic, prooflike, 1 oz 99.9% silver round features the famous Black Diamond buffalo inspired by the 1913 Buffalo nickel on the reverse, and is designated 1.00 XAG on the obverse.

Weight: 31.1 Grams

Purity: 999 Pure Silver

Year: 2014

Denomination: 1 XAG

The intrinsic tender movement seeks to popularise the use of gold and silver as currency, as these metals have intrinsic value unlike the legal tender notes and coins that we are used to using day to day.

The reverse features the currency denomination 1.00 XAG, with XAG being the currency code for silver under the ISO 4217 international standard. XAG is not the official currency of any nation, however the precious metals gold (XAU), silver (XAG), platinum (XPT) and palladium (XPD) all feature on this internationally accepted list of currencies.

In conjunction with the XAG currency code, the legend Instrinsic Tender has been selected for the reverse. This enforces the concept of the fungibility of silver facilitating its use as an acceptable tender for barter situations. These rounds are not coins, and are not legal tender.

Designed by Elise Martinson, an acclaimed Melbourne designer with several Perth Mint legal tender bullion issues to her credit, the Silver Buffalo features original artwork inspired by the 1913 Buffalo nickel designed by James Earle Fraser.

Bitcon 2014 SBSS Silver Medallion Bullion Round - Silver Bullet Silver Sheild Series

BitCoin seems all the rage these days.  Like any good bubble, greed will overtake logic for awhile, but eventually we all have to sit down at the table of reality.

So without further ado here are 26 reasons that BitCoin is a BitCON.

1. First and foremost it has no intrinsic value. The first 6 million were produced with little or no energy.  Those that had them, set out to build the perceived value, only to sell to the greater fool for their real value.  That is a pump and dump, Ponzi scheme plain and simple.

2. Then it is not any consciously different than the bankers who take intrinsically worthless fiat and build up the perceived value through bombs, laws and taxes to sell it to us for our real value as humans in our time, talents and energy.  Just because it is voluntary is not good enough, Enron, Maddoff and Ponzi were all voluntary schemes…

3. Then it is awful even as currency, because of the massive fluctuations in its price. One guy was so desperate to get Bitcoin to catch on, spent 10,000 Bitcoin on a Pizza.  So an early adopter spent 10,000 on a $10 pizza that cost the pizza owner $1 to make.  It is insane to think that now 1 Bitcoin this was worth as much as an ounce of gold.

4. Look at the energy input of bitcoin versus silver or gold.  No one can deny that it took very little energy to produce the first 6 million Bitcoin and the only reason why it takes more now is because it was programmed that way.  I challenge any Bitcoin person to look at all of the time, energy and talent to find, mine, refine and coin a single ounce of silver and tell me that somehow Bitcoin is worth multiple of that in energy?

5. It is also not anonymous. I have heard from the Bitcoin programmers themselves that there are ways to find out who is using them and how much they have.  You know that customers that buy anything online usually need to have something shipped to them, do you think it takes a genius to connect those purchases to maybe illicit Bitcoin purchases?

6. There there is the whole transparency aspect of it.  I have already stated that Bitcoin is not anonymous, especially when they buy something with it, but they transparency of the log would be a way for the government to eventually role out a currency that could be tracked, traced and tax all along the way. Your history is forever on the net.  Knowing that nothing disappears on the net and that we are entering an age of super processing power, I wonder if those that seem to dance in the dark doing illicit things realize that it is inconceivable that their actions will stay secret for long.  I am sure in the near future  it will be almost sport to identify those that want to stay secret.

7. It attracts con artists.  Because of it’s supposed anonymity and non recourse nature it is attracting the worst in humanity with outright fraud, drugs and now even murder for hire.

8. Then there is the fact, that since this is all open source, the barrier of entry of hundreds of new crytpo currencies being created lowers the perceived value of Bitcoin and it turns out to suffer what all new products have, the commoditization of the idea.  Knock offs will abound, more scams will spring forward and more people will get hurt and that will drive people away from the whole idea. That is until some government backs a crypto currency in a post dollar world and forces people to accept something for nothing money again.

9. Then there is the fact that this is only useful when the banking system and the dollar exist.  Bitcoin needs to use banks, business and exchanges that then need to comply to government and FINRA regulations and demands.  Do you really believe that when the larger dollar ponzi scheme collapses that people are going to trust Bitcoin?  I believe people will not want anything but the real tangible goods in their hands. Silver will thrive in that environment.  I cannot imagine going to a farmer now much less after a collapse and trying to Bitcoin for a gallon of milk.  Or how about a gallon of gas? But I am sure I could take a silver quarter and do that now, anywhere in the world, in the past, present and future.  Exchange real value for real value is natural, but exchanging perceived value for real value is not for me.

10. Then there is the whole notion of Bitcoin being a cheap way of moving money.  Have you ever looked at Dwolla?  I think it is much better without the currency risk and is over all cheaper because the conversion from Bitcoin to Dollars is not cheap.

11. Bitcoin is not really decentralized because there are so many choke points in the exchanges and redemption of Bitcoin.  People in China are learning just how quickly a properly motivated government can quash the perceived value of Bitcoin.

12. Decentralized is not enough, it must have real value.  You want a decentralized currency, silver is awesome for that.  It is private and can be stored for hundreds of years if necessary.  It is accepted world wide and throughout history. Bitcoin cannot even begin to touch that record.

13. Then there is the fact that the CIA was in on this early, met with the programmers and the very next week Mt.Gox crashed to $0.  Do we really believe that these government agencies fear Bitcoin?  I believe they are simply war gaming what a post dollar world would look like.

14. That leads to the mining aspect of it.  Because of it’s nature it is very difficult to mine bitcoin and only those with high powered computers can do it and I can think of no other guys than Washington and Wall St loving that with more powerful computers and using other people’s money to mine them.

15. The there is the Bill Gates thing that has bothered me for awhile.  He talks about “digital mining techniques” hurting the demand for gold.  At the time I covered it, it did not make sense but watching the rise of Bitcoin and the fall of gold and silver, digital mining techniques he is talking about makes sense in a globalist scheme. 

16.  Then there is the China factor.  China does not want dollars anymore, do we really think that they would want Bitcoin or anything like it.  Why wouldn’t they just create their own?  They are going for real wealth that drives the real world powers.  Why would we do anything different given the demise of the dollar?  The Chinese are emptying the gold vaults and just closed Bitcoin to their citizens.  

17. Then there is the tax implications.  You may have not noticed, but there are trial balloons circulating that they are going to go after Bitcoin people for unpaid taxes on their profits.  Remember, that is how they got Al Capone?  

18. Then there is the amount of energy is needed to maintain Bitcoin.  The amount of electricity to maintain the system must be growing and we are heading into an age of higher energy costs and supply disruptions.  The wonderful thing about silver is that all of this cheap current energy is being saved in the inert, refined silver that needs no further energy inputs.

19. Then there is the counter-party risk of Bitcoin.  There are so many points of risk and as people that are in the business of Bitcoin can see that one letter from an government agency and they would stop the dealing in it.  I have already heard a could people dabbling in Bitcoin lost everything with no recourse because of suspected transactions. 

20. Then there is that anti government aspect of it.  Really? It seems the Anglo American bankers love it, including Ben Bernanke and JP Morgan.  It is right up their alley with another something for nothing scheme.  They may crack down on Bitcoin only to launch their own brand.  Look at the Lotto.  They went after the mob for running numbers, but then made it legal for them to profit off of.  They went after Charles Ponzi and then created their own Ponzi Scheme with Social Security.  I am telling you Bitcoin or something just like Bitcoin will be used to sell to the people after the dollar collapse, a new electronic worthless currency.  Who knows maybe we will get bonus points for watching TV and using it?  They already have millions hooked on EBT cards, get the corporations involved and the government muscle and you could see the final realization of a digital currency where they can cut you off if you get out of line.  How many stories do we already hear about bank bailins and IRS and NSA messing with people’s bank accounts.  Having real wealth outside of the system is the only antidote for that.

21. Then there is the greater fool.  The guy that bought Bitcoin at $7 has a great incentive to promote the crap out of Bitcoin and as more people take a shot with it it drives up the perception while maintaining a constant supply. Of course the price will go up.  But what happens to the guy that bought at $1200 for 1 BitCoin? Does he really think he is going to find more people to bid $2000?

22.  Which brings us to the BitCoin calling LiteCoin a Ponzi Scheme.  It was on the official BitCoin wikipedia and has since been removed but I have a copy of it for you.

Bitcoin Exposed - Bitcon SBSS Silver Bullion Medallion

23.  Enough of the lesser of two evils dialectics.  The Criminal Elite thrive in this by offering distractions from the opposite consciousness solutions that are at our feet.  All Bitcoiners say Bitcoin is better than the Dollar, but seem to shake and stumble on how Bitcoin is better than silver.  And given the current run up I cannot see how anyone would not dump their Bitcoins for silver given the relative price between the two.

24.  Even the most adamant Bitcoiners would never put all of their wealth in Bitcoin.  When push comes to shove they will admit that it is not something they would go all in on.  I know more than a few that have admitted to me that they are selling for silver meanwhile they are promoting BitCoin.  Watch what people do and not what they say.  The gambling mentality is attracted to stocks, options and Bitcoin.  Real people don’t mess with that and would rather in vest in real friends, real ideas and real wealth.

25.  The destructibility of Bitcoin versus silver.  How many stories of stolen Bitcoin and trashed hard drives have we already heard?  Because it is just code, it will take very little to have it erased or corrupted.  I could throw an ounce of silver in a septic tank for and once it is washed off retain it’s value.  

26. Finally it is a digital distraction from the real wealth that will be most needed when times get tough.

Thomas Jefferson said that paper is the ghost of money.  Well I say Bitcoin is the illusion of the ghost of money since it is further removed to the real wealth of gold and silver.

Just like I am sure the Silver and Gold ETFs were used to distract real dollars from physical gold and silver, I believe this lotto fever for Bitcoin has distracted a good many freedom minded people away from silver and gold.  The good news is that as people sour on this fad, they will look to take their Bitcoins and cash them in.  I have had more than a few confess to me that they are doing just that.  And do we really believe all of these pundits that have been hyping Bitcoin aren’t doing just that?  I mean come on they made a living from pushing gold and silver, but the the real money is made in hyping Bitcoin rather than the small margins on selling real metal.  There will come a time when even the most die hard promoter of BitCoin will see the diminishing returns in pushing Bitcoin, and will move on.  I am sure a good many of perceptive eyes will see through this and these men have sold their reputation for a quick buck.

When the music stops the whole world will finally realize that when it comes to real wealth, You don't own it, if you don't hold it.

The 2014 Silver Shield BitCon is the first low premium Bullion Strike of the series.  The BitCON artistically shows the lies of the intangible, debt based, generational ponzi paradigm we operate in and the real solution of having real wealth in your hand when the music stops.

Are Gold and Silver Prices ‘Manipulated’, or Not?

It is unlikely that gold and silver prices are not ‘manipulated’, given that every other market is – but the question really is whether governments and central banks are part of the process, or not.

There remains a debate over whether gold and silver prices are ‘manipulated’, although perhaps the debate should actually be are the prices manipulated by central banks, governments and the major investment banks in an attempt to control (suppress) prices.

In truth, of course gold and silver markets are manipulated – as is virtually every other market on the planet.  It’s really a question of how one defines manipulation.  Short selling, or concerted buying, by big money, particularly through the use of High Frequency Trading, of any stock or commodity could be considered attempted manipulation and no-one doubts this goes on the whole time in virtually any market or stock one cares to name.

It’s part of the modern financial system and however one looks at it, it probably should be considered at the very least unethical, if not, in some cases, illegal, although market regulators turn a blind eye.  It gives market advantage to big money which the average investor cannot hope to counter and thus creates a far from level playing field hugely in favour of the major institutions – or at least those with big money at their disposal.  That’s how the rich get richer.

However that’s not really the debate with gold, and to a lesser extent its less costly sibling, silver which just tends to move in exaggerated concert with gold.  Here we enter the realms of global power plays because of the historical significance of gold as the ultimate measure of wealth, for an individual – and even more so for a nation.  Gold is perceived everywhere, much as Western economists may deny it, or disapprove of it, as being the yardstick against which key currencies are measured.  Rising gold prices in any currency are not real increases.  It is the declining value of currencies against the golden constant which is the reality. 

Now governments and the central banks do not like the weaknesses of their currencies being emphasised for all to see by their depreciations in terms of gold and, so the argument goes, they may do their utmost to prevent the gold price rising outside certain controlled parameters. 

Indeed if they can actually cause the gold price to dip that is a job particularly well done.  Now arguably, back in the northern summer of 2012, gold looked to be in danger of breaking out hugely upwards, only to see a subsequent series of price reversals bringing it back, at one time, around 40% from its high point.

This is not seen by the gold bulls and entities like GATA, as just a bubble bursting and extreme profit taking by the investment community, but they attribute more sinister motives to the recent price pattern and see governments, central banks and their major investment banking allies as acting in concert behind the falls.  And given that governments and central banks openly ‘manipulate’ currency exchange rates to meet their perceived requirements in the global marketplace, if one looks at gold as a currency then it is perhaps inconceivable that these entities are not involved in attempts to move the gold price in a direction which suits them and their global financial policies.

Some of the arguments on governmental and central bank involvement in the control of the gold price have been superbly laid out in a recent article called Gold Manipulation 101 by Bill Holter of  Miles Franklin Precious Metals Specialists.  Holter notes in particular that he has explained over his career many times “why” gold would surely be manipulated and that the Fed (and other foreign central banks) would be foolish not to try to suppress the price.  Gold is THE main competitor to fiat currency, an exploding price is like a neon sign advertising policy failure and currency flaws, as Paul Volcker once said, “It was a mistake to let gold get away from us.” And then goes on to explain exactly how this price suppression was achieved in the past and how it is today.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s the process of keeping the gold price under control – once the gold window had been opened – before which gold had effectively been at a fixed price – was handled by the London Gold Pool where physical gold was sold on the London Market so as to meet any excess demand until gold stockpiles were depleted to the extent that this control could no longer be achieved and the price then spiked up to $850 in 1980.

The problem then became how to supply gold to meet any excess demand and thus get, and keep, prices under control again.  This appears to have been done by persuading the major gold producers to forward hedge their gold sales to protect their profits going forwards which effectively brought, as Holter puts it, 1,000′s of tons of gold “forward” for sale and on to the market.  It had not been mined yet but the true intent and result was to place excess supply (which had not even been mined) onto the market to depress the gold price. Some see this as collusion by the gold miners in gold price suppression although, in our view, it was slick salesmanship by the bullion banks which handled the forward sales contracts. 

Indeed the hedging, and eventual gold price recovery, after the ‘Brown Bottom’ of 1999-2002 which saw the low point in the gold price as the U.K. sold half its gold reserves under the Chancellorship of Gordon Brown (later to become the UK’s Prime Minister), accompanied by rising costs, that led to the demise of some gold miners – notably Ashanti Gold Mines which had to be rescued, by being swallowed up, by AngloGold.

But the gold price started recovering.  The gold ETFs were launched which diverted much needed investment away from the gold producers into the Funds – latterly a major source of physical gold helping suppress the markets as continued adverse gold publicity fed to the media pushed the ETF investors into equities,

But, in the interim COMEX trading and paper gold took precedence as the prime manipulation tool with vast volumes of paper gold being pushed onto the futures market as gold looked to be starting to take off again which, in conjunction with High Frequency Trading (HFT), contributed to a number of flash crashes in the market, usually taking place out of U.S. trading hours when markets were thin.  Some of these flash crashes were major with huge numbers of contracts being sold with the very obvious intent of triggering other HFT stop loss sales and thus creating huge downward spikes in the markets.  These also had the effect of driving further sales out of the ETFs and thus adding physical gold supply into the equation.

Finally Holter points to the last and longest lasting method to manipulate gold’s price has been the “leasing” of central bank metal. This, Holter reckons, arose from the 1996 U.S. ‘strong dollar’ policy which meant somehow keeping the gold price down and at this point Central Bank gold leasing was introduced whereby Central Banks could lease out their gold at a ridiculously low rate to a bullion bank, while the latter could sell the gold on and invest the proceeds at a far higher rate in ‘safe’ government bonds. 

A no-brainer for the banks – and because the gold was leased, not sold, has enabled the central banks to retain the gold in their books as it is a loan.  Much of the gold sold though has been converted into jewellery – or found its way into other strong hands - and as the gold price has risen, while physical metal remains in short supply, it seems unlikely that the gold can actually be returned to the central banks in physical form.  (Hence the speculation as to why it is taking seven years for Germany to get its 700 tonnes of gold back from the central bank depositories in the U.S. and France).

As Holter concudes, Any and all of this could be proven beyond any doubt and the perpetrators brought to justice and jailed within just a few days.  There is a paper trail for all of this and the Justice department would have slam dunks all over the place…but there is a small problem.  They can’t (and won’t) prosecute “themselves” because ALL of these schemes had one goal in mind, suppress the price of gold.  This is exactly the “unofficial”…official policy.

This is the theory of the actual practice behind gold price manipulation (suppression) by governments and central banks and their allies in the financial hierarchy.  There are still many deniers out there who put the strange gold price flash crashes of the past two years down to market forces, but the access to the kinds of funds necessary to perpetrate them does, in our minds, suggest that there are indeed other factors at play here than purely banking and fund financial ones.

Of course there are other factors in the equation now, which will ultimately see any suppression scheme fail long term, but may just lead to other forms of manipulation elsewhere for political advantage.

As we have pointed out in these pages a number of times recently, Chinese demand is almost capable on its own of absorbing the total of global new mine production and thus, along with other gold purchasing nations demand for physical metal by strong holders seems to be exceeding global supply.

This means less and less physical gold availability in the West which ultimately has to diminish the capability of those trying to control the gold price to do so – particularly as outflows from the ETFs slow down.  But then we may just be seeing a transfer of gold price manipulation capabilities from West to East and who knows what that might bring in terms of pricing.  Gold is significant enough in its global financial position for someone to want to control it – it just depends who will have the future financial muscle to do so – and what their agenda might be.

2013 Consumerism (Santa Slave) One Ounce Silver 999 Medallion / Round Silver Bullet Silver Shield

2013 Consumerism One Ounce Silver 999 Medallion

There are few things more iconic than Santa Claus and the holiday season. Far from the original message and purpose, the holiday season has now become a time focused almost exclusively on gift giving.

With "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" sales taking over the nation every year, Consumerism has killed a once beautiful holiday. 

The design of this round by Heidi Wastweet deals with the embodiment and typification of this obsession with consumption. The skeletonized Santa Claus holds a familiar credit card with words "Slave Card" replacing the brand name and instead of his usual accoutrements he holds a chain of slavery in his right hand and his belt buckle is emblazoned with the five arrows of the Rothschilds family crest. 

In the background are the presents that once were merely a part of the holiday but now have almost become it's only purpose.

The word Consumerism is featured on the coin is a familiar font, not only paying homage to the commercialization of the holiday, but also holding up a light to systemic problem. 

Advertising has taken control of many aspects of our life. The reverse features the standard SBSS crest and message and the year 2013.