1 Penny Waters, Edward - Auckland

Edward Waters operated a hardware and general store in Auckland during the 1850s and early 1860s, issuing tradesman's tokens at a time when official British coinage was chronically undersupplied in the New Zealand colonies. The Royal Mint showed little urgency in addressing the shortage, leaving merchants to fill the gap with privately struck copper. Waters' tokens were produced in Birmingham, almost certainly by one of the established die-sinkers supplying the colonial trade — the same supply chain that equipped dozens of Australian and New Zealand issuers during the same decade.

Angus & Sons' 1936 census recorded two distinct varieties, now catalogued as R#581 and R#582, differentiated by die details.