1/2 Penny - Weight and Johnson Sydney, New South Wales

Weight & Johnson operated as ironmongers and general merchants in Sydney, and their 1862 token was issued during the chronic small-change shortage that plagued the Australian colonies before the establishment of a unified federal coinage. The colonial government's inability to supply sufficient regal copper left a vacuum that dozens of tradesmen filled with private tokens — over a thousand distinct types were struck for New South Wales merchants in this period alone, the majority produced by Birmingham diesinkers and shipped out as blank or finished pieces.

The Andrews, Renniks, and Gray reference numbers each reflect separate cataloguing traditions that developed independently in Australian numismatics and have never been fully reconciled into a single standard.