Allen (Kiama)

DESCRIPTION

NameAllen (Kiama)DescriptionJohn and William Allen were storekeepers in Kiama in the 1850s.

John and William Allen produced ‘penny tokens’ which are well known in numismatic (coin collecting) circles.

The Jamberoo Penny was one of the many ‘unofficial’ pennies known as tokens that were issued by Australian store keepers in the 1850s. Because of the gold rush the population and economy had grown rapidly, resulting in a severe shortage of coins. The Colonial Governments minted gold into coins and this alleviated the shortage of large denomination coins. However, small denomination coins for use in change by store keepers remained in very short supply. To overcome this shortage many store keepers arranged to have their own ‘unofficial coins’ produced. These were mostly pennies of the same size as the official penny. Usually one side had the name of the business while the other side had some sort of patriotic design. The authorities at the time tolerated these coins but they were suppressed in the 1860s when enough new British coins became available to take over.

There are about 500 types of such Australian tokens known. Most are common enough to be readily obtained by collectors. However some of these are extremely scarce and the Jamberoo Penny is one of the rarest. There are about 25 Jamberoo Pennies known, many of which are in museums or mint collections.

One side of the Jamberoo penny has a small motif in the centre which contains a rose, shamrock and a thistle. This is surrounded by the words ‘General Stores’ which is in turn surrounded by the words ‘William Allen Jamberoo’ arranged in a circle just inside the circumference edge. The other side has an early unofficial coat of arms containing a kangaroo and an emu surrounded by ‘Advance Australia 1855’.

The Kiama Penny which is even scarcer – there are only 5 are known. The Kiama Penny was produced in 1855 for John Allen, General Stores, Kiama and is similar to the Jamberoo Penny. John Allen was the brother of William Allen.

These tokens, and other types, were manufactured by J C Thornthwaite of Sydney. Initially Thornthwaite did not have the necessary experience or equipment to prepare the blanks or strike the coins. A book published in 1921 has an almost comic description of the difficulties Thornthwaite encountered and methods he tired to manufacture his first coins. William Allen of Jamberoo is known to have rejected his batch for poor workmanship. Thornthwaite disposed of these coins to the Allandale toll keeper. The Kiama coins were probably rejected also. This would account for their scarcity.

Information researched and provided by David Radford.

Object

Holy Bible - Allen Family

William Allen General Store Jamberoo Penny Token. Photo from Noble Numismatics Auction Catalogue 2008.

CONNECTIONS

CollectionFamiliesLocalityJamberoo

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Allen (Kiama)