Description
M. Somerville, Wholesale Family Grocer, City Mart, Auckland trade token, issued in 1857:
Description & Details
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Issuer / Business | M. Somerville — Wholesale Family Grocer, City Mart, Auckland, New Zealand. |
| Date | 1857 |
| Material | Copper |
| Diameter | ~ 34 mm |
| Weight | Between ~ 14.5-16 g depending on the specimen (~14.6 or ~15.8 g in some listings) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Obverse inscription | “M. SOMERVILLE / WHOLESALE / FAMILY GROCER / CITY MART / AUCKLAND” (in five lines) |
| Reverse design & inscription | At centre: a bouquet consisting of a rose, a thistle, and a shamrock (representing England, Scotland, and Ireland) tied with a ribbon. Around: “NEW ZEALAND 1857” |
Historical Notes
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Issued as a trade/merchant token to advertise Somerville’s grocery business in Auckland when official small change was scarce.
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The business “City Mart” was known, and after a long period, Somerville sold the store to Walter Graham. Somerville died in 1902.
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The token is catalogued in several references: its catalogue number is KM-Tn64 (in the Krause & Mishler system) for the trade tokens of New Zealand. It’s also listed under references “R-483” and “A-499” in Renniks / Andrews catalogues.
Varieties & Die Differences
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There are multiple reverse dies and at least two obverse dies used in the coinage of this token.
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Specific die-combinations are used to identify individual specimens. For example, some tokens are labelled A/1, B/1, B/2, B/3 etc., referencing which obverse & reverse die were used.
