1 Penny - Beaven, S. Invercargill

Samuel Beaven operated a general store in Invercargill during the early 1860s, issuing this token at a moment when Southland's remote geography made British coin chronically scarce. The provincial economy was expanding rapidly on the back of pastoral runs, but official coinage simply did not reach the settlement in sufficient quantities. Beaven's token — along with a handful of others circulating in the region — filled that gap in daily commerce.

Relatively few Southland tradesmen's tokens were struck compared to those issued in Otago or Canterbury, making provincial survivors like this one harder to source than their catalog numbers might suggest.