1 Penny - Perkins and Co. Dunedin

Perkins & Co. was a Dunedin ironmongery and hardware firm that issued tradesman's tokens during the acute small-change shortage that gripped Otago in the early 1860s, when gold rush population growth far outpaced the supply of official British coinage reaching the province. Most Otago merchant tokens of this period were struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by John Moore or one of the other Black Country diesinkers who dominated the colonial token trade at that moment.

Andrews 435 is not a rare piece, but genuine examples should show a clean, unbroken edge — poorly preserved specimens are sometimes confused with the closely catalogued Gray 226 variants.