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1 Penny - T. Butterworth and Co. Castlemaine, Victoria
| Issuer | T. Butterworth & Co., Castlemaine, Victoria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1859 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 14.1 g |
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|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | T. BUTTERWORTH & Co. 1 FOREST STREET CASTLEMAINE |
| Reverse description | The reverse depicts a classical seated figure of Justice, robed and facing three-quarters to the left, holding a balance scale aloft in her right hand and grasping a fasces or similar attribute in her left. She is seated on a rocky promontory above a harbour scene, with a sailing vessel visible at lower left and a merchant's chest or bale at lower right, symbolising trade and commerce. The composition is framed by a beaded border, with the date 1859 prominently inscribed in the lower exergue. The allegory evokes the prosperity and orderly commerce associated with the Victorian gold rush era. |
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| Additional information |
Castlemaine sat at the center of the Mount Alexander goldfields, and by the late 1850s its population had swelled and then contracted with brutal speed as alluvial gold gave out. T. Butterworth & Co. issued this token during that awkward transitional period, when the colonial economy was liquid enough to need small change but the official copper supply from Britain remained chronically inadequate for day-to-day retail transactions. Private tradesmen across Victoria filled the gap themselves.
Andrews#54 is among the more straightforwardly attributed of the Victorian merchant tokens — no known mule varieties complicate the picture here, which is not true of several contemporaneous Castlemaine issues.