1 Penny - Miller Brothers Melbourne, Victoria

Miller Brothers operated as ironmongers and general merchants in Melbourne, and this token was struck to alleviate the chronic small-change shortage that plagued colonial Victoria throughout the 1850s and 1860s. The British imperial government was slow to supply adequate coinage to the colonies, leaving private traders to fill the gap — a situation that produced one of the most diverse token series in the English-speaking world. Andrews, Renniks, and Gray each catalogued this piece independently, a reflection of how seriously Australian numismatists have treated the colonial token series.