1/2 Penny - Hall, Henry J. Christchurch

Henry J. Hall operated a drapery and general merchandise business in Christchurch during the 1870s, when the chronic shortage of official small denomination coinage in the Canterbury province forced local merchants to commission their own tradesman's tokens. The colonial government was slow to address the gap, and private copper filled it. Hall's pieces circulated alongside tokens from dozens of other Canterbury tradesmen, redeemable at the issuing counter but functionally accepted much more broadly.

Andrews 161 is among the better-documented Canterbury issues, appearing consistently in the major New Zealand token references with concordant numbering across Gray and Renniks.