History Or Hoarding? With Annabel Crabb
May 5, 2026 · 27 min · 19 segments
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…
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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 from the famed Dixon collection, usually held very securely under lock and key.
Among the moths drawn irresistibly to this numismatic flame was a famous expert from Melbourne, Mr. Ray Jewell.
Now, Ray Jewell was the kind of man who could spot a genuine 1852 Adelaide Assay Office gold piece by feel alone in his pocket.
So Ray's at the exhibition, of course, chatting away companionably with other numismatists, canape in hand perhaps, who knows, when he peers down at a case of Dixon's colonial era gold coins, and he does a double take, and then he peers a little closer.
And the people asked, uh, "What do you think of the exhibition?" He said, "Oh, it's very nice, but, um, um, when are we gonna see the real ones?" [whimsical music]
Catastrophically for the library, Ray Jewell's assessment was absolutely correct.
Some of the library's most precious coins had indeed been swapped out for fakes.
This sickening discovery was the beginning of a detective mission that would consume the greater part of a decade and unveil one of Australia's most ornate charlatans, a charming library regular with a side hustle in forgery, a man of mystery.
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 from the famed Dixon collection, usually held very securely under lock and key.
Among the moths drawn irresistibly to this numismatic flame was a famous expert from Melbourne, Mr. Ray Jewell.
Now, Ray Jewell was the kind of man who could spot a genuine 1852 Adelaide Assay Office gold piece by feel alone in his pocket.
So Ray's at the exhibition, of course, chatting away companionably with other numismatists, canape in hand perhaps, who knows, when he peers down at a case of Dixon's colonial era gold coins, and he does a double take, and then he peers a little closer.
And the people asked, uh, "What do you think of the exhibition?" He said, "Oh, it's very nice, but, um, um, when are we gonna see the real ones?" [whimsical music]
Catastrophically for the library, Ray Jewell's assessment was absolutely correct.
Some of the library's most precious coins had indeed been swapped out for fakes.
This sickening discovery was the beginning of a detective mission that would consume the greater part of a decade and unveil one of Australia's most ornate charlatans, a charming library regular with a side hustle in forgery, a man of mystery.
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