Spanish Dollars

Spanish Dollars were the cause of many disputes and interesting comments at the time.

It was in November 1804 that a naval engagement took place of Sydney Heads. The English whaling ship "Policy" armed with six twelve pounders and carrying letters of the marque, came up against the"Swift" a Dutch vessel with six eighteen pounders. After two hours fighting the Dutch ship was compelled to strike her colours and was accompanied into Sydney, the bounty for the colony from this encounter was the twenty thousand Spanish dollars she carried.

Thomas Parnell was a signatory to a petition objecting to the Commissariat's new system of paying for supplies, using the Spanish dollars, taken from the "Swift".

St. Matthew's church where a vast number of Parnells were christened and married had a very interesting start, Governor Macquarie placed a Spanish holey dollar in a bottle under the foundation stone, taped the stone into place and said "God bless St. Matthew's Church." That evening the stone was removed, the dollar stolen, the procedure was repeated, and within two days, the dollar was again stolen. The Governor then allowed the walls to rise without the silver basis, two years later the walls had to be pulled down to the foundations because of a building fault. The result being that St. Matthew's is today a much larger church than it would have been.

When the Anglican Church of St. Lukes in Liverpool was dismantled, under the floor in the area of the congregation used by the convicts was found a large number of these Spanish coins. It has been taken, that during the services a little gambling had been done.