THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
large figures (i?10 to £30), if they were offered to
public competition.
Australasia has, as may be naturally imagined, a
very modest array of nuggets, numismatic-ally speak-
ing, whatever it may possess in another sense. The
Adelaide assay-piece of 1852 is worth 30s., having
been intended as a sovereign, but happening to
weigh about 21s. 6d., it was melted by the bullion-
dealers.
The Port-Philip sovereign, 1852 and 1853, and the
Sydney sovereign and half-sovereign of 1855-56, which
generally occur as proofs, are apt to realise about
thrice the face-value. The primitive ounce and half-
ounce are worth somewhere about double their weight
in ore.
The scarce pattern penny for New Zealand, 1879,
has been carried to £3. 15s.
Upon the whole, the Oriental series, when a few
early rarities irrespective of metal are excluded, must
not be calculated at more than a fraction over weight.
The gold is in general of high standard. An excep-
tion has to be noted in much of that of Japan, by
which even experts were at first misled.
A limited number of exceptions to the principle are
met with in the Anglo-Indian coinage for Bombay
under Charles II. The Pax Deo rupee of 1678 with
the arms of England, and the undated rupee and half-
rupee with the arms of the East India Company
belonging to the same reign, realise about £6. 6s. Od.
each ; and there is a still rarer copper piece of the
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