Tokens And Special Purpose Coins Of New Zealand

Beautiful token Daltonista, I just ordered one too, similar condition (gVF). However with our new lockdown, it may be a while before we see it.

Because of our Level 4 lockdown for a week (Delta finally made landfall here) that means Postal services are stalled and no more tokens from me for a while. The person selling the tokens was to post them tomorrow as there was a storm in Wellington today (August is like your February in the northern hemisphere), the coins have not been sent.

Seems I may have my ideas wrong, NZ post will continue to make deliveries through Level 4.

And because of that the token I bought last week arrived today and its a doozie.




Henry J Hall, Christchurch, One Penny token, 1862 first type (TN - 28), goodFine with staining and verdigris on one side.
Copper Token - 34mm minted by Stokes in Melbourne.

This token comes from one of the most interesting and prolific issuers of all. Henry J Hall was born on Guernsey and came to Chch in 1858 buying up over 60,000 acres of land. Hall also operated a grocery store and as the coin suggests Wines, spirits and coffee, no doubt giving Milner and Thompson's Allied Tea Company a run for their money!

https://collections.museumsvictoria...rticles/2026
Good basic biography complete with illustrations of the the various types of token issued by him.


High Street Christchurch in the mid 1860s. Bear in mind, settlement started in Feb 1851 and in 1865 the population was around 4,000 people spread out

Hall issued at least 19 different tokens in pennies and at least 3 halfpennies, The Halfpennies are a bit more scarce and there are 3 main types, my coin is the earliest type of penny and the most common. Later pennies had One Penny on one side in 2 lines and were minted by Taylor and company in London, UK.

Hall's coins also included at least 2 mules which were sided up with Australian tokens and these are very rare! This was obviously mistakes by the Stokes mint and such coins are very collectable now. One of these is a halfpenny muled with E.F Dease of Hobart and its obverse showing an emu, a bird unknown in NZ!

There is also a series of crude restrikes from 1920 or so, these have HJ Hall without bars and appear to be on flaky bronze metal that looks corroded, no rhyme or reasons for these!

Hall operated his stores until 1873 when he cashed up and focussed on his land holdings being an aristocratic land owner.



High Street in 1869, a welcome arch erected for the visit of Prince Alfred, son of Queen Victoria - the first royal visit we had.

Despite the wooden buildings, Chch was prosperous in 1869, having a direct rail link to the port of Lyttleton and money from grain and wool was starting to flow in. By the mid 1880s, the street was lined with brick and masonry structures and even in the 1860s was the premier shopping destination, a title it holds today!



Another view of it - Hall may have paid for the arch or even erected it!

Hall ordered thousands of tokens and his ones are quite common, although even the common pennies are worth around $30 - $100 in Fine to EF condition. Hall died in 1896 aged in his late 60s.

Fascinating history and photos, Princetane! My ancestor Ingram Shrimpton emigrated from Oxford to NZ in the 19th century and founded a newspaper, The Lyttleton Times, at Lyttleton. I was very saddened to hear that Lyttleton was badly damaged in the earthquake of 2011.

Fascinating! I'll have to go back there - thanks for posting the photos! I saw the Lyttleton Times Building in 1999 when I visited Christchurch for the first time.

That gun is scary - you must have a lot of guts standing next to it. I hate guns but with all this violent crime, we may need them.

As regards my latest buy in, 2 more "Medallets" were included. Again these were give aways and peculiar to my country.




The aluminium magnesium one is a medallet that had a clip once, this was given out to 250k school kids in 1907 (NZ had a population just under 1 million then) for the occasion of NZ being made a Dominion in the British empire. They are not rare, but incredibly interesting. The coin has the NZ flag at left of the King and Union Jack on right, it is 27mm in size.

The other is a cheap brassy/spleter thing (Light) that is for the coronation in 1902. I know nothing about this - but the size, hole and relative cheapness of it suggests it was probably also another mass produced giveaway piece. Again historic, but such things are worth $5 or so each.

This one has a conjoined portrait of the King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria.

Meet Sam Coombes, mid-19th century New Zealand's Tailor to the Stars!
Renniks 87; Andrews 77; KM Tn15


Modern-day coverage on the man and his business is pretty limited, so I'll just paste in below everything I was able to find online, with total credit to MuseumsVictoria and their contributor, H.A. Robinson (the latter via his article, "Auckland Tradesmen's Tokens," published in the May 1974 New Zealand Numismatic Journal).

"Samuel Coombes was a tailor, born about 1837, whose main store was in Queen Street, Auckland, New Zealand. He also had a store in Albert Street, Grahamstown. According to a biographical sketch prepared by New Zealand numismatist H.A. Robinson, Coombes was 'was the only issuer of currency tokens in New Zealand who put his portrait on his tokens. He is depicted in the style of the day, full face, with side whiskers, and like King Henry VIII, whom he resembled, he made the mistake of showing his portrait almost full on, with nose protruding, instead of in profile.'

"Despite his unfortunate choice of portrait, it seems Coombes made very sensible business choices, as he [sic] appears that he owned an arcade at 86 Queen Street, in addition to having his own business there.

"Coombes issued three varieties of copper penny tokens, and possibly a fourth, according to Robinson."

Following Princetane's lead in such matters, I found this image on Wikipedia of Coombes's own street as it appeared in about 1889, painted by Jacques Carabain. Thirty-plus years earlier, around the time the token circulated, Queen Street in Auckland was probably a lot more "rustic."

Nice examples!