Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Marta Cienkowska on a visit to Canberra
19.02.2025
Minister Marta Cienkowska visited Canberra to collect from the Honourable Tony Burke, Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Cyber Security and the Arts, a historic Australian 1813 Holey Dollar coin, which was stolen from the numismatic collection of the District Museum in Torun. The coin was recovered thanks to the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and Australian authorities with law enforcement agencies.
The ceremonial handover of the recovered coin took place at the Polish Embassy in Canberra. In addition to Minister Cienkowska and Minister Burke, the ceremony was attended by representatives of Australian federal offices, the diplomatic corps and representatives of the Australian Federal Police.
Restitution of numismatic collections is an extremely difficult process. In the case of the 1813 Holey Dollar, the cooperation of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage with the Australian Department of Collections and Cultural Heritage in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts was of great importance. The decision to return the coin to Polish collections was made by Minister Tony Burke, despite the fact that this coin represents Australian national heritage. During his speech, he stressed that his decision was motivated by a simple principle guiding the Australian authorities - condemnation of theft in all its forms.
Police, prosecutors and experts in numismatics and art history also played an important role. It was thanks to their cooperation that the object was tracked down in Australia. The head of the Polish Embassy in Canberra, chargé d'affaires a.i. Marcin Kawalowski, especially thanked the Federal Police, including the officers from Melbourne and Perth present at the ceremony, who were personally involved in the recovery of the coin.
Minister Marta Cienkowska also attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial and visited the National Gallery in Canberra.
Learn more about the history of the 1813 Holey Dollar
The 1813 Holey Dollar was originally minted in Australia using a silver Spanish dollar of King Charles III, cut from a Mexican coin dated 1777. However, the circumstances of how it left the continent remain unknown. In 1914, Polish collector Walery Amrogowicz purchased the coin in Amsterdam, adding it to his extensive collection of approximately 2,000 coins, over 200 copperplates, as well as watercolors and postage stamps. Shortly before his death in 1931, Amrogowicz donated his collection to the Scientific Society in Toruń, which later transferred it to the District Museum.
The Holey Dollar remained in Toruń through two world wars and the fall of communism in Poland. However, between 2008 and 2017, it was stolen along with several hundred other coins and subsequently appeared on the international auction market. In 2022, thanks to information provided by the police, prosecutors, and staff at the District Museum in Toruń, officials from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage were able to trace the coin to Australia.
