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Australian gold coin for sale for $750,000

1852 Adelaide Pound Nobleman Gold Coin.
A rare Australian gold coin has gone up for sale for an eye-watering price. (Source: Coinworks)

It could be time to rummage through your drawers, with a rare Australian gold coin hitting the market for an eye-watering $750,000.

The coin in question is the 1852 Adelaide Pound, which is Australia’s first gold coin and was minted following the discovery of gold in Australia in the 1850s.

This particular coin is being sold by rare-coin seller Coinworks and is called ‘the Nobleman Gold One Pound’ as it was previously owned by a baron and held in his Nobleman Collection.

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“The Nobleman One Pound is one of many top colonial coin rarities that left Australia's shores, found a home with a foremost British coin collector to resurface in the early 1900s,” the listing reads.

The coin was later exhibited at the National Museum of Australia, the Museum of Victoria and the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.

It is described as being in “virtually mint state” and is a “Type I Gold Pound” from the first production run of the coins.

According to Coinworks, fewer than 40 Type I Gold One Pounds are currently in collectors’ hands, making them an extremely rare find. It estimated there were around 250 of the Type II coins from the second production run.

An average Type I Adelaide Pound was usually worth between $125,000 and $175,000, Coinworks said, while an average Type II coin could fetch $25,000 to $35,000.

Australia’s first gold coin

The 1852 Adelaide Pound was originally made as “emergency currency” by the South Australian authorities in response to the gold rush.

According to the Perth Mint, an estimated 8,000 men left Adelaide for Victoria in search of gold. The men also took their coins with them, leaving Adelaide in a coinage crisis.

The coins were technically created illegally, as the South Australian government did not receive official consent from the British authorities.

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