token; trade 1 penny (Australia)
Maker
The Mint Birmingham Ltd.
Production date
1858
Description
Trade token from Hide and De Carle grocer and wine merchants, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne Australia. Value of one penny. Obverse shows a crowned male lion, facing left with it right paw on a shield bearing the Union Jack. On the reverse is the female representation of Justice with the balanced scales and a inverted cornucopia from which fruit flows. She is seated on a wool bale with a wine barrel on the ground behind her with a cross on its end hinting at the Union Jack. A three masted ship sails to the right on the left side.
Thomas Hide and Edward De Carle formed a partnership in 1857, having both run their own business separately. They ran a grocery, wine and sprit merchants as well as a land and estate agency. They issues different types of penny and half penny tokens, in 1857 and 1858. These were struck by Heaton and Sons of Birmingham, also known as the Birmingham Mint one of the most prolific private mints in the world.
These tokens were part of a system of unofficial currency in the Australian colonies due to a currency shortage in spurred on by the gold rushes and population growth. The token were usually penny and halfpenny in value and were minted in Australia and Britain.
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