E. De Carle & Co operated as a general hardware and ironmongery merchant in Melbourne during the gold rush years, when the colony of Victoria was flooded with diggers and the official copper coinage from Britain arrived too slowly and in insufficient quantities to meet demand. Private tradesmen's tokens filled that gap — not by formal permission, but by practical necessity. The Colonial Treasury repeatedly failed to resolve the small-change shortage, leaving merchants to issue their own.
Andrews #103 places this among the better-documented Victorian copper tokens of the period.
E. De Carle & Co operated as a general hardware and ironmongery merchant in Melbourne during the gold rush years, when the colony of Victoria was flooded with diggers and the official copper coinage from Britain arrived too slowly and in insufficient quantities to meet demand. Private tradesmen's tokens filled that gap — not by formal permission, but by practical necessity. The Colonial Treasury repeatedly failed to resolve the small-change shortage, leaving merchants to issue their own.
Andrews #103 places this among the better-documented Victorian copper tokens of the period.