what is a holey coin?

Answer 1

The original use of the term was Holey Dollar and in Prince Edward Island as well as Australia back in the early 1800's coinage has scarce in both places. The took Spanish American 8 reales coins and punched out the middle. The large piece was called the Holey Dollar and the punched out piece the Dump. Australia in the late 1980's made commemorative coins that were Holey Dollars and dumps. Now some coins from some countries have a hole in the middle. The first people to do this was the Chinese on their cash coins. Their records state that the round cash coins with the center hole were first cast in 1100 BC. The records also state that a King named Ching 544-520 BC improved on the coinage. Some early 1900 to 1950's African coins made by the British also have a center hole as well as cash coin from what is now Vietnam showed up in the 15th century or so. The term holey is actually only used by numismatists for the 2 dollars I mentioned above.

Answer 2

If it's holey, it's got a hole in the middle. You could take it to a numismatist for evaluation. If it's 'holy', then it might have been blessed by the Pope on a visit to somewhere particular (look on it to see if there are any dates).

Answer 3

Uhhhh.....

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