Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals and Paper Money

A check awarded to Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia 1915-23 and the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament, 1901-52

AUSTRALIA, Sydney, Sydney Wharf Labourer’s Union, plated brass, stamped 3043 1902 wm. h., 26mm; together with other World checks depicting clasped hands (8), including F.W.W.U., Sydney branch, Bristol Coal Runners & Hobblers Benefit Society, National Union of Gas Workers & General Labourers (Royston), H.M.I. Dockyard Co-Operative Canteen (India), Sailors’ Union, silver (D & W 178/596), National Amalgamated Union of Labour (Sheffield District) [9]. Fine and better, all but two pierced as issued £150-200

William Morris ‘Billy’ Hughes (1862-1952), Prime Minister of Australia 1915-23; b. Pimlico, London; spent his youth in Llandudno and Montgomeryshire; emigrated to Sydney 1886; joined the Socialist League, 1892; won the Legislative Assembly seat of Sydney-Lang, 1895; secretary of the Sydney Wharf Labourer’s Union; elected to the first Australian federal Parliament as Labour MP for West Sydney, 1901; admitted to the Bar 1903 and became KC 1909; Attorney-General 1908-15; succeeded Andrew Fisher as Prime Minister, 1915; expelled from the party for favouring conscription and set up the National Labour Party, which formed a national coalition with the Liberals; re-elected as premier in the elections of 1917 and 1919; resigned February 1923