Archibald Auckland Clark was a Dunedin merchant who issued this token during a period when official copper coinage was chronically absent from the New Zealand colonies — the British government having made no provision for low-denomination circulation currency. Private traders filled the gap themselves, commissioning tokens from engravers in Britain and Australia. Clark's issue was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by the firm of Joseph Moore, who produced a substantial proportion of the New Zealand provincial token series in the 1850s.
Archibald Auckland Clark was a Dunedin merchant who issued this token during a period when official copper coinage was chronically absent from the New Zealand colonies — the British government having made no provision for low-denomination circulation currency. Private traders filled the gap themselves, commissioning tokens from engravers in Britain and Australia. Clark's issue was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by the firm of Joseph Moore, who produced a substantial proportion of the New Zealand provincial token series in the 1850s.