Rare coin’s big dollars

AUSTRALIA’S rare “Hannibal Head” Holey Dollar is expected to fetch about $500,000 when it is sold for only the third time in its history.

The sale announced by Melbourne’s Coinworks comes almost four years to the day that a second Hannibal Head coin was stolen from the State Library of NSW. The current offering was discovered in Tasmania in 1881.

Holey dollars became Australia’s first currency in 1813.

The Hannibal Head coin is one of what is believed to be about 300 Holey Dollars still in existence.