You can imagine my delight when I read, in early Australia, children of convicts were called ‘Currency’!

Things were looking up for our ancestors!

But then I learnt it was derogatory.

How could currency be derogatory!?

Money in the early penal colony was British, Dutch, Indian and Portuguese coinage, but there was a shortage, and most of it left the colony by way of trade with the visiting ships.

This left bartering.

And the most valuable thing to barter? Rum.

There are a lot of interesting stories with rum at their centre in early Australia:

• Crime (you might remember from my post about Margaret Maloney, her husband John McDuel, along with several others was found guilty of stealing from the public stores. As they were on full rations at the time, it was suggested that they stole the goods to furnish their drinking habits.)
• Executions
• The Rum Hospital
• The Rum Rebellion…

…the Rum Rebellion…in 1808 the recalcitrant NSW Corps, hundreds strong, in full colours and band playing ‘The British Grenadiers’, marched upon Government House and over threw the government!

The mutinous NSW Corps created a propaganda cartoon within hours of Governor Bligh’s arrest that still exists today, showing him being pulled from under his bed in full uniform.

Fifteen months later Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived, tasked with restoring orderly and lawful government.

He bought with him a vision of a thriving civilised metropolis driven by burgeoning capitalism.

And at the centre of any capitalist economy? Money.

In 1812 he purchased coins to the value of 40,000 Spanish dollars and had a convict forger punch holes in them, creating the first Australian Currency, the ‘Holey Dollar’ and the ‘Dump’.

The Holey Dollar had New South Wales imprinted around it’s inner rim and the Dump had New South Wales and a crown on one side and Fifteen Pence on the reverse. Their combined value; 6 shillings and 3 pence.

In 1822, just ten short years later, the government began recalling the Holey Dollar and the Dump and replaced it with British coinage, Sterling.

In 1829 the Holey Dollar and the Dump was demonetised. Now worthless.

Currency, worthless.

In juxtaposition, the children of free settlers became known as Sterling.

In schools and daily life, the Currency and Sterling lads and lasses competed…but…

Convict children – with the abundance of fresh protein from land and sea, endless nutritional garden goodness, stunning beaches to swim, boundless space to run and an endless supply of sun and fresh air – grew tall, fairer and strong.

Compared to their counterparts, newly arrived from a motherland suffering from overcrowding, hunger, poverty, crime and where sunshine, space and clean waterways were not so abundant…

…I reckon, regardless if I was Currency or Sterling, I’d want Currency on my team!

Happy Autumn 🍂