1/2 Penny - Ashton, H. Auckland

H. Ashton operated a grocery and provision business in Auckland during the late 1850s, a period when the colonial government had failed to supply sufficient small-denomination coinage for everyday retail transactions. Merchants across New Zealand resorted to commissioning private tradesman's tokens from British die-sinkers — primarily in Birmingham — to make change possible at all. Ashton's halfpenny tokens correspond to Andrews numbers 19 and 20, indicating two distinct die varieties were struck for the same issuer.

The Birmingham connection is consistent with nearly all New Zealand merchant tokens of this period; local striking capacity simply did not exist in the colony.