The Hutt River Province is without doubt the most prolific coin-issuing secessionist state in history, having released well over two hundred unique coin types over a period of nearly thirty years. The history of these issues encompasses four periods:

1. Early Circulating Coinage 1976-78:

Worldwide media interest in the Principality in the early 1970s led to the development of a thriving tourism industry, and as visitor numbers to the fledgling state located in a remote corner of Australia's rural west coast increased, the benefits of establishing an independent  currency system became apparent. A set of low denomination banknotes was therefore introduced in 1974, and this was followed by the issue of the first series of six Hutt River coins in 1976.

As the new coins were intended for actual use within Hutt River's borders both uncirculated and proof varieties of the four lowest denominations were produced. The latter were sold via mail order - along with high-value silver and gold pieces - to coin collectors, whilst the former could be exchanged for Australian Dollars (at a 1:1 conversion rate) by visitors to the Province, and used to purchase items from the range of philatelic material and souvenirs on offer. Many tourists elected to keep their change as a souvenir of their visit rather than exchange it for  Australian currency again on their departure - and thus provided a small but useful additional source of revenue for Prince Leonard's coffers.  

The issue of the Province's coins and banknotes went  unacknowledged by the Australian government - although it appears that they did achieve some level of legitimacy in the eyes of others; advertisements from the mid 1970s note that Hutt River currency was exchangeable at that time for other foreign currencies at the Hong Kong offices of Deak & Company. It is not known for how long this arrangement remained in place.

2. Early Precious Metal Coins 1979-84:

An active tourism industry notwithstanding, the need for circulating currency appears to have declined towards the end of the 1970s, as the mintage figures for the 1977 series were half those of 1976 - and the numbers for 1978 were halved again. This reality was reflected in a change of issuing policy in 1979; from that year the Province ceased to mint low-value circulating coinage, but instead turned its attentions exclusively to the release of high-value, commemorative, non-circulating coinage for the numismatic collector and investor markets - a greatly more profitable business - particularly as 1980 witnessed a tenfold increase in the price of silver bullion on world commodity markets. 

For the next few years the Hutt River Treasury maintained a conservative minting policy, releasing a single, low-mintage precious metal coin annually. During this time the contract for the production of the Province's coins was transferred from the Lombardo Mint in Canada to the California-based New Queensland Mint. 

3. The New Queensland Mint Issues  1985-95:

Detailed information concerning the precise nature of this shadowy corporation, and of the Province's relationship to it continues to elude this researcher, however it is probable that the association was facilitated, if not instigated by Kevin Gale (aka Prince Kevin) - the charismatic personality whose long, complicated and ultimately acrimonious involvement with the Hutt River Province is explored in more detail elsewhere on this website. 

The period began with a steady stream of new commemorative releases, but this very quickly became a flood as the various firms subcontracted by the Mint to market its coins throughout the United States aggressively ramped their sales activities. Commemorative themes became almost entirely US-flavoured, mintages surged into the tens of thousands, and a dizzying array of coin denomination and composition variations emerged with each new issue, as the Mint sought to corner every possible market - from bullion speculators at one end of the spectrum, to "joe average" buyers who had probably never bought a collectable coin before, at the other.

The frenzy of coin releases from the New Queensland Mint reached its high watermark in the early 1990s with the release of a 46-coin set commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II, and a set of similar size celebrating Operation Desert Storm. The latter series alone, with all of its variations, added over one hundred new unique coin types to an Hutt River catalogue already groaning at the seams.  

Such was scale of the business that it eventually came to the attention of the United States Postal Service - and they, for reasons that remain unclear, determined to shut it down. The New Queensland Mint's marketing activies, whilst ubiquitous and no doubt often intrusive, were probably no worse than those of other mass market collectables promoters - but in any event, in 1995 a court case was brought by the USPS against Continental Coin Company, who were at that time marketing the Desert Storm series. 

In its representation to the court the USPS contended that the Hutt River Province was not a legitimate coin-issuing authority, that its coins were not legal tender, and that Continental's advertising claims to the contrary therefore constituted a fraudulent use of the US postal system. These contentions were not particularly strongly founded, and certain of the evidence used to support them was of questionable validity - however the defense was even more poorly conducted, and in the end the judge's ruling favoured the USPS; Continental was forced to stop referring to any Hutt River issues it might market from that time onwards, as coins. 

 4. 1995-the Present Day:

The court ruling dealt a serious blow to the perceived legitimacy of Hutt River coins, and coinciding with the sudden unexpected death of Kevin Gale, resulted in a complete and immediate cessation of the Principality's numismatic ventures.

The four year coin drought that ensued was broken with the release in 2000 of a limited-mintage $100 gold piece commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Province's secession (manufactured by an Australian mint) - but no further issues have been made since then, and it is uncertain if a regular minting programme is ever likely to be reinstituted under the current Administration of the Hutt River Province.