1/2 Penny - John Andrew and Co. Melbourne: Victoria

John Andrew & Co. operated as an ironmonger and general hardware merchant in Melbourne during the gold rush era, when the colonial government's chronic shortage of small-denomination coinage left retailers effectively forced to commission their own tokens or lose trade entirely. The colonial authorities had repeatedly failed to secure an adequate supply of regal copper from London, and by 1860 private token issues had become the de facto small change of Victoria's retail economy.

The Andrews reference number and Gray concordance place this firmly within the documented Melbourne merchant token series. Struck in Birmingham almost certainly by either Heaton's or a comparable contractor supplying the Australian trade.