Hide & De Carle operated as ironmongers and general merchants in Melbourne during the frantic commercial expansion that followed the Victorian gold rush. Like many colonial businesses of the period, they issued private copper tokens to address the chronic shortage of small change — official British coinage simply could not reach the colony fast enough to meet demand. The Colonial Bank of Australasia estimated in 1857 that tradesmen's tokens outnumbered legitimate copper in circulation across Victoria by a significant margin.
The firm's token was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by the Heaton Mint, which produced the vast majority of Australian tradesman tokens during this window.
Hide & De Carle operated as ironmongers and general merchants in Melbourne during the frantic commercial expansion that followed the Victorian gold rush. Like many colonial businesses of the period, they issued private copper tokens to address the chronic shortage of small change — official British coinage simply could not reach the colony fast enough to meet demand. The Colonial Bank of Australasia estimated in 1857 that tradesmen's tokens outnumbered legitimate copper in circulation across Victoria by a significant margin.
The firm's token was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by the Heaton Mint, which produced the vast majority of Australian tradesman tokens during this window.