COPPER TOKENS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 218, 12 September 1906, Page 8

COPPER TOKENS.

iTo the EditO!-.) I 6-ir.—"'All thing? conn- lv liini who i I wait?!" I have for rt loner time eou- j templnlcci peeking information on ib? ! ; subjoct of copper token.-, and it was : with deen intcresi ] read the remarks j on these by your contributor, ''A.8.," ■ . i\: yivur is."s.:e of Wednesday last. j Not long ago a friend of mine who is I interested in coin* estimated the total! ' number of tokens issued in New Zealand j i at. nbout 45. but this estimate lias never; bepit verified, though possibly there is. 1 somewhere a record of the nr-tual nura- • her that passed into circulation. The! tokens are mainly interesting as links j with the past. and many isn old identity: will turn them over and recall by-gone ' days, when money was so scarce that j a leading Auckland grocer invariably ! gave hi* customers his I 0 I" in lieu of ' change, and probably next day accepted j ii again in return for groceries. ; Of the token? mentioned by "A-R," I, have Nos. 1.2 (penny), rj (halfpenny ),l 7. 11. 14. 17. 2:;. -2-i (penny and half-! penny), 28 (four varieties).' 30. 32. 34.} 35. :iO. and 38. T believe I have nlso ! thai issued by Tredale and Co.. Sydney.; but as my specimen i? much defaced I,' should be jrratefnl if "A.8. - ' would de-i scribe thi>- token fully. The four I tokens (No. 28) issued by dinner and i Thompson a= late as 1881. are not defaced in the least, and are quite .-c moet beautifully designied of any I have seen, with typical New Zealand scenes. '< the tattooed head of a chieftain, and a! group of musical instruments. I have I also tokens .issued by Robert Hyde Mcl- j bourne. Lewis Abrahams. Draper. Ho- j bart Town. Charles C. Barley. Auckland.' (which bears the description '"God Save! the Queen."! and P,. Qosephs. Van Die-f men's Land URo.V, this last ha ring a representing of th* new town poll pale.! Diu-ing the last Jive years copper tokens I have become. very pcarce. pas.«in-»! probably into the hands of collector? '■ who retain them as curio?, or as links! in a chii-in of old memorip*.—l am. etc..' L.' M. '"'