Catalog
| Issuer | Victoria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1855 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 16.2 g |
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| Obverse description | Seated figure of Britannia facing right, helmeted and draped, raising an olive branch in her right hand and resting her left hand on a shield bearing the Union Jack device, a trident leaning against her left side. A sailing vessel appears in the lower left field near the horizon line. The legend BRITANNIA arcs around the upper periphery, and the whole design is enclosed within a beaded border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
I. Booth was an ironmonger operating in Melbourne during the gold rush years, when the colonial mint could not produce small-denomination coinage fast enough to meet the demands of a population that had roughly tripled in under five years. Tradesmen's tokens filled the vacuum entirely by private necessity, not official sanction. The Andrews, Roper, and Gray references all catalogue this piece, reflecting how seriously Australian numismatists have documented the token series — the colonial token literature is among the most exhaustively cross-referenced in the anglophone world.
The KM#Tn23 assignment came considerably later, as Krause worked to incorporate Australian tradesman tokens into a standardized framework not originally designed for them.