Tokens And Special Purpose Coins Of New Zealand

Taranaki Maunga! Not far from Paritutu Rock, which is alleged by some to be the main feature depicted on this penny token issued ca. 1866 by John Gilmour of New Plymouth. In the foreground, shown in and around New Plymouth's harbor, are a kiwi, a Maori canoe, palm trees, and a fern plant. I've not been able to find any background on Mr. Gilmour.

Renniks 149; Andrews 143. (31mm)

Daltonista, your stuff is stunning too, gradewise I would grade your pieces at.

Waters - VF/almost so
Cosmo club - EF/AU Stunning (But more of the later ones are high grade VF to UNC)
Gilmour - I would say this is a high Fine - however its is very clean, neat and has no damage or verdigris so it would attract a VF price.

My tokens in order from first to last.

Advance New Zealand - a nice darkened VF example, some may even say gVF, light overall wear.

Dunedin 1858 token - light verdigris and stains - darkened, but otherwise goodFine and a nice piece.

Milner and Thompson (Alliance Tea Company) - lots of stains and verdigris, but this would grade VF, the lettering is sharp.

Grattan - Thames Hotel - aFine/Fine, still an average nice token

McCaul - VF as well, despite some staining

Duthie/Brown - a very nice coin aEF, couple of scratches on mountain sides.

Scratches, pitting, verdigris is acceptable as long as it does not overwhelm the coin. After all these are old copper or bronze pieces. Less acceptable is cleaning and sadly being New Zealand there is a lot of this. My coins are generally not cleaned which helps.

Daltonista - I didn't even know Renniks did a Tokens catalogue - that is cool. I may even buy one as once I have most of the 75 or so Kiwi tokens, I intend to collect the Australian and British ones too.

I use a basic Bertrand which is a small A4 catalogue that lists the tokens and prices but not much more, the section on later ones and communion token is much better.

On the other hand I have won 5 more tokens and will write these up when I get them!

Wow everyone, thanks so much for the eye opening info!! This is so new to me!

Some examples of "Medallets"



All very modern and including a 1974 Aluminium medal thing celebrating the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. The 1953/54 Royal Visit (Every schoolkid in NZ got one, and they are very common - rare without the hole though).

Also 5 Jamboree dollars from a Scout Jamboree in 1993.
This would count as a type 3 thing being a piece of scrip, special purpose, discount tokens.


These pictures are reduced to the limited bandwidth (originally the 700px pictures were 357kb - is there anyway to make them lower kb or up this limit).

These are not medals, as a medal typically will be something you get for bravery, supreme achievement or some form of glory. Medallets may look like medals and being medal orientation ( then again so are most coins) and have precious metal - but to get one you have to only pay some money or do very little (Like be a schoolkid or a scout rather than win a bravery thing).

3. Special Purpose, Discount and Scrip tokens - these are tokens often given away or earnt by a company, co op or individual and such tokens give the holder some item (A bar of soap, loaf of bread etc), a discount ($10 off a new piano or a Dr Dre album), or they are scrip meaning they are tokens that have credit on them.

Scrip is quite common in America in the past, used on farms, factories and institutions, prisons and camps - often the recipients were marginalised and the worthless tokens had some perceived value to the institution that the receiver could use to buy goods and services.

In my case we are talking about Farmers Co - ops, the only type here in NZ, similar to a mine or plantation in the states and the tokens had values usually from a few pence (cents) to several shillings and pounds (Dollars in USA). The tokens would be paid in partial or full payment of wages or credit (Sometimes cash money would be given too). Usually they were only redeemed in a company or co op store and often had restrictions on what they were good for (Food stamps are fairly good example of this type of thing). My guess is no doubt prices were marked up and these items were issued solely to keep the worker betrothen to their employer or company. The companies/co ops, prisons, authorities no doubt made a killing on these things. Made out of base metals, they usually had no or very restricted value outside the company/authority on the token.

"I sold my soul at the company store" - Tennessee Ernie Ford 1955,

Me too.
I have been chained to wheel now for 43 years.
Black Sorrows 1989. :)

Steve :)

Wow guys, I feel like a very minute spec of plankton in this vast & wonderous ocean that you, 'big fish' are so knowledgeable about #129402;#129303;#128519;