A 200-year-old silver coin has been returned to the Government of Poland.

The obverse and reverse of the rare Polish 1813 Holey Dollar.
The obverse and reverse of the rare Polish 1813 Holey Dollar.

A rare “Holey Dollar” coin dating back more than 200 years has been returned to the Government of the Republic of Poland at a ceremony in Canberra.

The coin was bought lawfully by a collector in the early 20th century and donated to a museum in Toruń, where it became a protected object of Poland. It was then stolen from the museum’s collection between 2011 and 2016, sold in 2 auctions in Europe, and made its way to Australia through unlawful export.

Acting on advice from the Australian Government’s Office for the Arts, and a restitution request from the Republic of Poland, the coin was seized by the Australian Federal Police under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 in August 2024, enabling its return.

The 1813 Holey Dollar is an example of coins used in the colony of New South Wales to address a currency shortage.

Originally a Charles III Spanish Silver Dollar minted in Mexico in 1777, it was one of 40,000 Spanish reales imported by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The centre of the coin was cut out to create 2 new coins. The centre was called ‘the dump’ and the outer ring became known as the ‘Holey Dollar’.

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