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1 Penny - Morrin and Co. Auckland
| Issuer | Morrin & Co., Auckland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1860-1866 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Trade tokens (1857-1881) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A tall palm tree — consistent with the New Zealand pūriri or a stylised tree fern motif — rises centrally from a mounded base, its fronds spreading broadly and symmetrically across the field. The circumferential legend reads in raised Latin capitals within a beaded border, identifying the issuing merchant and their business address and trade. The arrangement of the lowest fronds and the position of key letters in the legend relative to the head of the Justice figure on the obverse serve as the principal variety-distinguishing features across the four known die pairings. |
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| Additional information |
Morrin & Co. operated as one of Auckland's principal general merchants and importers during the 1860s, a period when New Zealand had no domestic copper coinage and British pennies were chronically scarce in the colony. Private tradesman's tokens filled the gap entirely. Thomas Morrin issued these pieces not as a vanity exercise but out of commercial necessity — small change was genuinely hard to source, and retailers who couldn't make change lost sales.
The Andrews and Renniks reference spread across four variety numbers reflects meaningful die differences across the issue's six-year run, making this one of the more actively collected New Zealand token series.