Token History

Back in January, I was alerted that someone was selling a Benjamin Gittos token on Trade Me. Unfortunately, I lost out on that particular token (final bidding occurred right when the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society’s February meeting was happening on 4 February), but — another one came up on the lists two weeks later. That time, I won the auction.

 I’ve been after a Gittos token for years, ever since first reading an article in the Auckland-Waikato Historical Journal from April 2001 called “The Money Merchants” by John Cresswell. In the earliest days of our country’s money system, while there were paper notes or their equivalent in circulation, there was apparently a shortage in coins. Businessmen took up opportunities provided by die-sinkers and coin manufacturers in Australia and England, such as Thomas Stokes of Stokes and Martin in Melbourne, his successor Joseph Taylor and Joseph Moore of Allen & Moore in Birmingham to order numbers of penny-sized tokens, as a durable form of early advertising. The Gittos token, for example, is nearly 150 years old! 

According to Cresswell, “The firm of B Gittos obtained supplies of their penny from Stokes of Melbourne in 1864 and once in circulation, these became a common feature of small change throughout the Province.”

Benjamin Gittos was a shoemaker in Auckland by 1854, entered into the leather and grindery business by 1857, built a new brick shop in Wyndham Street in 1863, and in 1864 both produced his penny token and took up land beside the Oakley Creek in Avondale for the first of the Gittos family’s tanneries.So,  this token is, to me, part of Avondale’s light industrial history — something I was dead-set on obtaining for its historical value alone. 

One side says: “ B. Gittos, Leather Merchant, Importer of Boots & Shoes, &c., &c.” The other: “Wholesale & Retail Leather & Grindery Stores, Wyndham Street, Auckland NZ, 1864.”

At the time of losing out on the first Gittos token, I went for a consolation -- which turned out to be this next one.

I think someone along the line may have worn this, judging by the hole at the edge. I was attracted to it as it served as a memorial to the late Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. But Samuel Hague Smith had his own story to tell.

He was in Auckland from c.1859 to around 1876, leaving for Australia never to return after the death of his wife a couple of years before. But in the interim, he served on the Auckland Provincial Council -- so this piece is a bit of a hark back to that administration body. The date isn't known, but it would be after  1861 and before c.1970, after which he turned to sharebroking.

Finally, this. Tiny, made from aluminium -- this is said to be a penny token from the Dunedin Tramways. I do question whether this is real, or something churned out for later collector interest. But, as it didn't cost a bomb, I find it interesting.