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1 Penny - Victoria United Service Hotel, Auckland
| Issuer | United Service Hotel, Auckland |
|---|---|
| Year | 1874 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing draped bust of Queen Victoria in the young head portrait, her hair swept back and gathered in a bun with flowing locks, bound by a fillet or bandeau. The circumferential legend reads VICTORIA DEI GRATIA, disposed to left and right of the effigy, with the date 1874 positioned in the lower exergual area. The entire design is enclosed within a continuous beaded border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
New Zealand had no domestic coinage until 1933, leaving the colony dependent on British coin and a patchwork of privately issued tradesman's tokens to meet everyday demand for small change. The United Service Hotel in Auckland issued this penny token during that gap — a practical solution to chronic shortages of low-denomination copper in the 1870s. Such tokens circulated freely among local businesses, accepted largely on trust in the issuer's solvency.
The Renniks reference number places this among a well-documented but genuinely scarce class of Australasian merchant tokens, few of which survived in quantity once official coinage eventually superseded them.