Wagga storekeepers John Thomas Roberts and William Love minted their own penny tokens in 1864. Photo: CSURA/Museums Victoria.
One of the earliest souvenirs from the growing town of Wagga Wagga is a curious copper coin stamped with the name “Love & Roberts, Store Keepers, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales”.
Colonial penny tokens like these are highly sought after by collectors today and played a surprising role in the early days of Australian commerce.
This particular coin from the Museums Victoria Collection was minted in Melbourne in 1864 on behalf of business partners John Thomas Roberts and William Love.
Messers Love and Roberts opened their general store in Victoria House on Fitzmaurice Street in the mid-1860s and were successful enough to later open a second store on Baylis Street.
The partnership dissolved in 1872 when Love purchased Egan Station at Yerong Creek and sold his interests to Fred Roper. Roberts went into partnership with the newly arrived David Copland but poor health soon prompted a move to Sydney and he passed away in 1879.
But why did these Wagga shopkeepers have their own coins?
In the middle of the 19th century, Australian businesses found themselves short on change. The colony’s approach to currency had been a random assortment of British and foreign coins and home-grown innovations like the Holey Dollar and the Dump.
Created by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813, these were made by punching out the centre of a Spanish coin and trading with the outer ring (Holey Doller) valued at five shillings, and the middle bit (the Dump), which was worth 15 pence.
In 1855, the colony of NSW struck its first official gold sovereigns and half sovereigns at the newly established Sydney Mint, but for those trading in lower denominations for everyday items like bread and tea, small British coins were a rarity.
To meet the demand, savvy storekeepers and businesses began to commission their own tokens, which were struck in copper and bronze, and generally represented pennies and halfpennies. They also served as a handy bit of advertising as they drifted into circulation.
While not technically legal tender, demand was high and it’s believed that as many as a million pieces were issued.
An article from Tasmania’s Cornwall Chronicle in May, 1851 highlights the emergence of these “Copper Tokens in imitation of the penny and half-a-penny of British coin”.
They explained that the authorities tolerated the trade “provided always they are redeemed by the issuers when requested so to do by holders”. Any token maker who would not trade hard currency for a handful of bespoke coppers would be reported and publicly called out.
An advertisement warned token holders to beware: “if the tokens were not intrinsically worth the sum for which they pass,” as they could be left with a worthless collection of underweight copper disks if the business closed down.
The Sir Marcus Clark “Aborigine Threepence” token sold for $95,000 in 2024. Photo: Coinworks.
The copper coins commissioned by Wagga’s Love and Roberts were minted by Thomas Stokes, who according to the Daily Telegraph in November 1923, “had come some years before from London, and combined the occupation of die-sinker and button maker to produce what were called pieces”.
Stokes had purchased a mill capable of making copper plates of the desired thickness and was able to produce such a large number of high-quality coins that authorities decided it was time to step in.
Victoria halted the use of copper tokens in 1863, but it was another five years before they were banned in New South Wales and Stokes found plenty of business striking coins for the likes of Love and Roberts in 1864.
Today, these rare bootleg colonial coins are worth serious money with a Love and Roberts penny valued in the thousands.
The most famous Australian token is the so-called Aborigine Threepence, which was struck by Sydney jewellers Hogarth and Erichsen in 1860.
It was the only colonial piece to bear the design of an Indigenous person and an example sold for $95,000 in 2024.
