Australia’s greatest coin heist
5/5/202627 min
A charming restaurateur, ballroom dancer, coin collector and porn aficionado. A closely-guarded trove of colonial gold coins in the William Dixson collection. A daring heist! Annabel Crabb dives into the obsessive world of numismatics and finds the history of Australian currency is full of crooks.
This episode's speakers:
- Jim Noble - Numismatist
- Julia O'Shea - ABC Researcher
- Oral History Librarian Rosie Block interviews librarian Joy Storie, 2005
A detailed listing of the Sir William Dixson numismatic collection is available in the SLNSW online catalogue.
- Presenter: Annabel Crabb
- Researcher: Julia O'Shea
- Audio Engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan
- Supervising Producer: Rachael Cusick
- Executive Producers: Eric George and Carmel Rooney
- Head of Audio on Demand: Jessica Radburn
To hear the rest of the History Or Hoarding? podcast series, or for more of the best history podcasts covering Australian history, global history, including war, politics, literature and some of the most interesting people, moments and turning points in history, go to ABC listen Australia's history tab or the ABC Australia channel or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJim Noble· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] Do you ever look at your kids and think, "They've got it easy. Life was so much harder back in my day." Well, have I got the podcast for you. It's called Wait, They Did What? We take a trip back in time to when kids could buy fireworks, cars didn't have seat belts, and we all had to sing God Save the Queen. They did what? They did what? They did what? I can't believe that. [record scratching] Check it out with your kids. Wait, They Did What? is on ABC Listen and ABC iview.
Annabel Crabb· Host0:27
[upbeat jingle] ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more. Hello, welcome back to History or Hoarding. I'm Annabelle Crabb. The year is 1973. It's a Friday, Friday, March the 16th. In Sydney, everything is pretty normal except there's an unusually high number of coin collectors in town. [whimsical music] There's not that many coin collectors in Australia, but the ones that there are are very, very serious people. They are called numismatists. That's the magical word for those who specialize in rare coins, and in March 1973, they'd flocked to Sydney. The State Library of New South Wales had a special treat for these visiting coin nerds. It was an exhibition for one day only of rarities and treasures