[2] At the time of the gold rush, and the South Australia colony was beset with, apart from the shortage of workers, a financial crisis due to the sudden increase in the availability of gold and the lack of sufficient currency to pay for it.
The manager, George Tinline, created an assay office and mint, and the conversion of some of the diggers' gold to bullion which could be used as a form of currency.
[3] A Bullion Act was passed and some 25,000 £1 coins were minted, but were not recognised as legal currency by the Bank of England.
Tinline was awarded a purse of 2,000 guineas (£2,200; several millions of dollars in today's money), and an elaborate silver salver (now in the Art Gallery of South Australia).
[4][5] Tinline was sacked by the bank in 1859 after severe losses caused by a customer defaulting.