Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Penny - J. Mc Farlane Melbourne, Victoria
| Issuer | Victoria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 18.3 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Entirely typographic design with no pictorial elements. A circular legend reading CORNER OF ELIZABETH & LONSDALE St's around the periphery, with MELBOURNE at the base, all separated by a beaded border. The central field carries the merchant's name J. McFARLANE in large raised lettering, with WHOLESALE & RETAIL and GROCER inscribed in three horizontal lines below, identifying the issuer's trade and business location in Melbourne. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Entirely typographic design with no pictorial elements. The peripheral legend reads I. FRIEDMAN around the upper portion and ARGYLE STREET around the lower portion, all enclosed within a beaded border. The central field bears the single word PAWNBROKER in bold raised lettering, identifying the trade of I. Friedman, whose premises on Argyle Street, Melbourne, are referenced on this privately issued tradesmen's token. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
McFarlane's token was struck in Birmingham by the prolific trade token producer John Whiting, part of a massive wave of privately issued copper pieces that flooded the Australian colonies in the late 1850s and 1860s to compensate for chronic small-change shortages. The colonial governments repeatedly attempted to suppress the trade token habit, but merchants found the official supply of British regal copper wholly inadequate for retail transactions at the scale Melbourne's population boom demanded.
Andrews #360 is among the more frequently encountered McFarlane pieces, suggesting a substantial original issue — Whiting's Birmingham operation could produce tokens in quantities that would have satisfied even a large retail operation.