Governor Macquarie is credited with producing the first official currency specifically for circulation in Australia.

Foreign coins have been common in the early years of the New South Wales colony but much of this coin leaves the colony as a result of trade with visiting merchant ships.

Macquarie, to secure a reliable supply of coins, purchases forty thousand Spanish dollar coins in 1812 and has a convicted forger named William Henshall cut the centers out of the coins and counter stamp them to distinguish them as belonging to the colony of New South Wales and prevent them being useful elsewhere.

The central plug (known as a "dump") is valued at fifteen pence and the rim (known as a holey dollar) becomes a five-shilling piece.

In 1812 also, the first detailed inquiry into the convict system in Australia by a Select Committee on Transportation, supports, in general, Macquarie's liberal policies.

The committee thinks that fewer tickets of leave should be issued, however, and opposes the governor having the power to grant pardons.

The committee concludes that the colony should be made as prosperous as possible so as to provide work for the convicts and to encourage them to become settlers after being given their freedom.