An Entrepreneur In Every Sense Of The Word

William Joseph Taylor was a British entrepreneur active in the numismatic manufacturing industry in London in the late 19th century. Perhaps his largest single project was the Kangaroo Office at Port Phillip between 1853 and 1857 – a venture intended to take advantage of the explosive economic growth in Australia following the discovery of gold in 1851. The pattern tokens struck by Taylor for this venture are among the most keenly sought of all Australian numismatic items.

Taylor is variously described as having been an engraver; a die-sinker; a medallist as well as a coin dealer. He was an entrepreneur in every sense of the word – a man with an ability to dream big, he had a keen eye for an opportunity, an appetite for risk and the drive to pursue his goals.

Although Taylor's reputation for quality and purity is beyond reproach, there has been unspoken criticism repeated down the years of him that his work was opportunistic, and that he unfairly chose to trade on the reputations that others before him had established.

Taylor was born in 1802 and passed away in 1885, began his apprenticeship in 1818, and established himself in London in 1829. Forrer's Biographical Dictionary of Medallists lists several dozen medals and medallions engraved and struck by Taylor from the early 1800's onwards, and in 1847 Taylor produced the first copper coins for the newly independent Republic of Liberiai. It is important to note that prior to his Kangaroo Office venture in 1852, Taylor had struck copper halfpenny tokens for the British merchant Matthew Young, copper penny and halfpenny tokens of William Till between 1834 and 1839, as well as a pattern coin (One Gourde) for Henri I of Haiti in 1820.

The Soho Mint at Birmingham (founded by Matthew Boulton) closed in 1848, and it's plant and equipment was sold via auction in April 1850. Taylor purchased many of the Soho Mint's hubs and dies from this auction.

Taylor used these hubs and dies to restrike many of the coins & patterns that the Soho Mint had struck between the 1790's and the 1840's. Taylor nearly always re-polished or re-engraved elements of the original dies before re-using them – some Australian collectors will be familiar with the pattern copper coins of George III (1797 ~ 1807) that are sometimes seen with a proof strike on a silvered or gold plated copper planchet – these are the types of restrike Taylor produced once he had obtained the dies and hubs from the old Soho Mint.

The Kangaroo Office – An Excellent Idea Poorly Executed

When news arrived in England in late 1851 that the miners of Victoria’s goldfields were selling their nuggets and dust at a substantial discount to the standard price of gold, Taylor saw an opportunity to earn a profit by converting the abundant gold into small ingots or tokens that could be used in daily business. It is important to note that “At that time it took 3 to 4 months for news to reach London from Australia1.”

Taylor found several business partners to finance the proposed enterprise for ?13,000, and a 600-ton ship named the Kangaroo was purchased by Messrs Hodgkin, Taylor and Tyndall. The Kangaroo departed London in November 1852, and arrived at Hobson's Bay in Victoria on October 23rd 1853ii. On board was the press used by Taylor to strike commemorative medals at the Great Exhibition of London at the Crystal Palace in 1851; the dies that were intended to be used to strike the gold tokens, copper planchets suitable for use as halfpenny tokens, and a range of supplies acquired for resale to budding miners headed for the Victorian goldfields.

Most emigrants to Victoria in the 1850’s were shocked at the state of the colony when they arrived – at that time, two to three ships were arriving each day at Port Phillip, as many as 300 ships were often anchored in the Bay at any one time2. In the very early days of the gold rush, many incoming passengers were dropped at Liardet’s beach, over a mile from the town centre3. As time passed, there was only one pier large enough for ocean-going vessels to berth at, and rather than wait for it to become available, most boats would deposit their passengers and cargo into a barge that would then unload them at Queen’s Wharf.

Scaife soon found that it was impossible to move the coining press from the dock into the city in one piece - the wharves have been described as “a scene of dust”4; with incoming freight hauled by horse & cart, wagons and even wheelbarrows from the wharves to their final destination. These transportation methods could note cope with the weight and mass of the coining press.

It took Taylor’s men over half a year to dismantle their machinery and re-assemble it at their intended premises on Franklin Street West in May 1854. By the time the Kangaroo Office staff were in a position from which they could conduct business, market conditions had moved significantly against them, specifically the price being paid for gold in Australia had risen by almost 50%.

Although some of this rise can be explained by increased competition among gold buyers in Melbourne and faster shipping between Australia and London, it was the significant shift in the balance of payments between 1853 and 1854 that saw a large number of British sovereigns arrive in Melbourne. The Kangaroo Office was actually a victim of the success that took place while the machinery languished on the ship moored in Port Phillip Bay.

As the population of Victoria grew, imports for all manner of goods were paid for with the spoils of the gold rush. Food, clothing, mining equipment and building materials were just some of the goods pouring into Port Phillip Bay following the population explosion of Victoria’s gold rushes. As had happened in California several years earlier, the amount of goods arriving in Victoria during 1853 & 1854 (much of it sent on consignment in the expectation of lavish profits) exceeded demand, and a glut of supplies occurred.

While sterling had been at an 8% discount to par in the Australian colonies at the end of 1851, these market forces saw it rise as high as 5% over par in April and May of 18545. The rapid increase in the money supply, specifically the injection of numerous British sovereigns, ensured that miners could more readily sell their gold much closer to the official price of ?4 per ounce. The primary competitive advantage that Taylor had anticipated his Kangaroo Office would enjoy was thus wiped out in several months, before a penny in profit could be earned.

In an effort to generate sales of some products manufactured using the Kangaroo Office press, the manager (Reginald Scaife) and the assistant manager (William Morgan Brown) attended the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition, held between October and November 1854. On display was the coining press, as well as a complete set of the four gold pattern tokens from 1853. Advertisements in the local print media of the day are firm evidence that these gold tokens were offered for sale to all and sundry as “mementoes”iii.

The gold tokens of the Kangaroo Office have the following characteristics:

At this time, Scaife and Brown also struck and sold souvenir medallions commemorating the exhibition in a range of metals – white metal, silver and copperiv. Scaife and Taylor's attention then turned to conceiving further uses for the Kangaroo Office equipment.

TAYLOR'S AUSTRALIAN COPPER PATTERNS – 1854 to 1857

It says much for Taylor's perseverance that following the realization in late 1854 that the Kangaroo Office would not succeed as a going concern producing gold token coinage, that he began to prepare dies for a series of pattern copper tokens that it was hoped could be produced in Melbourne by the Kangaroo Office for circulation within Australia. The physical characteristics of these copper tokens are:

Research by John Sharples gives a strong indication that Taylor struck the first of these patterns upon receipt of a fairly direct request via a letter in September 1854 from the manager of the Kangaroo Office, Reginald Scaife. Scaife mentioned in his letter that “I have written to a Sydney man abt. Making copper I.O.U.'s for 2d., 3d or 4d....v”

Although Taylor's copper twopence and fourpence patterns are undated, the timing of Scaife's letter,  the designs the copper tokens feature and the characteristics they share with the gold patterns of the Kangaroo Office are further evidence that they were struck around 1854.

There is little doubt that while Taylor was striking these patterns, Scaife would have made further effort to gain a contract from a number of Australian merchants and tradesmen for their production. The fact that they did not enter commercial production, and further that the dies were not shipped to Australia is firm evidence that Scaife was wholly unsuccessful in soliciting orders for these tokens.

TAYLOR'S AUSTRALIAN SILVER PATTERNS – 1855 to 1857

It is understood that from around 1855, Taylor began to create shilling and sixpence patterns in silver that he hoped could be struck by the Kangaroo Office in Melbourne. Examples of these denominations have been variously recorded in gold; silver; copper; pewter; aluminium and silver-plated tin, all with milled edges and with the following characteristics:

A senior member of the Australian Numismatic Society in the early 1900's, a Dr W. E. Roth made a range of enquiries in England about Taylor's Australian silver patterns.  By that time however Taylor had already passed away, and “his successors were unable to state anything more definitely concerning the date and object of the issue than that they were struck in gold, silver and copper somewhere about 1855 or a little latervi.”

It is no coincidence at all that these patterns share a number of design characteristics with the gold Kangaroo Office tokens:

• A raised flat rim with a knurled pattern on either side;
• The denomination expressed as a single numeral in the centre of the reverse;
• The geographical area relating to the token's use incuse around the obverse rim;
• The denomination incuse around the reverse rim.
• A straight milled edge.

While the obverse of the Kangaroo Office gold patterns feature a standing kangaroo over the date in exergue, the obverse of the 1855 silver patterns feature a coronate bust of Queen Victoria facing left. Although it is not known who engraved the portrait for the obverse, every indication is that this design was the work of WJ Taylor himself.

Whatever Taylor's efforts were to obtain authority to strike and circulate his silver shillings and sixpences, the dies for the Australian patterns he struck in 1855 were never sent to Australia, and the tokens certainly never entered commercial production.
“The whole affair collapsed, and instructions having been received from the promoters in London to sell all up, the managers attempted to realize whatever they could. Already over ?13,000 had been invested in the ship and stores concerned. Mr Scaife, the Senior Manager, sent a whole lot of machinery and dies home – the remainder, together with the press he sold through Lloyd, his agent to Stokes (Martin & Stokes) of Melbourne, where it is being used up to this present day6.”

RESTRIKES OF TAYLOR'S AUSTRALIAN SILVER PATTERNS 1864 ~

Andrews states that “Since that time [1853 – 1855] one or more restrikes have been issued .... having plain edgesvii”, and although this is consistently reported in other numismatic texts covering this period, no empirical evidence has been presented to confirm this position.

Numismatic evidence seems to suggest that if the plain-edge patterns are indeed restrikes, then they may have been struck upon the direct request of the pre-eminent British collector John Gloag Murdoch.

John G Murdoch was a wealthy British industrialist whose “collection of English coins ranks as one of the most important ever formed or soldviii”. Murdoch's collection also included a “brilliant and unrivalled” series of gold proof and pattern coins struck for Britain's colonies, including Australia.

It is known that a number of proof and pattern coins were struck by the Australian branches of the Royal Mint and sent to Murdoch for inclusion in his collection, often struck on planchets that were supplied by Murdoch himself for that very purpose! In fact, certain items such as the Pattern 1887 Melbourne Half Sovereign struck in platinum would not exist were it not for Murdoch's persistent requests.

A British dealer active at the turn of the 20th century stated that Murdoch “started collecting only late in lifeix.” Murdoch passed away in 1902, and most of the Australian proof and pattern coins held by him were dated between the late 1880's and approximately 1901. WJ Taylor died in London in March 1885, however his sons Theophilus and Herbert carried the family business on for several years after that. Theophilus left the business in 1892, and in 1908 the presses, tools and machinery were sold offx.

These facts would seem to indicate that if a modest number Kangaroo Office shillings and sixpences were re-struck in various metals for John G Murdoch, that order would have been carried out by Theophilus and Herbert Taylor. It is possible that Murdoch was so taken by the story of the Kangaroo Office and Taylor's efforts at introducing a silver token coinage in Australia that in the absence of any of the original items being available to him to add to his collection, he requested that representative examples be struck for him.

The pattern & proof gold coins struck by the Australian branch mints upon the direct request of Murdoch have been  eagerly sought by collectors ever since they were first offered for sale in 1903, and there is no reason why the Port Phillip silver patterns struck for Murdoch should not receive the same recognition.

1860 AUSTRALIAN PATTERNS BY TAYLOR

In the short period following 1860, the reverse of Taylor's Australian pattern shilling tokens was re-deployed with several different obverse designs engraved by a Belgian medallist that had commenced work for Taylor.

There are three basic types of the 1860 Australian Patterns, and these have been reported to have been produced in gold, silver and copper with the following characteristics:

Charles Wiener (1832-1888) was a Belgian sculptor and engraver, from a well-known European family of engravers. Wiener began his studies as a medallist at the Brussels Fine Art Academy in 1844, and completed them in 1852. Following his graduation he moved to Paris, and worked under the famed French sculptor and medallist Eugene Andre Oudine until 1856.

Wiener then settled at The Hague (in the Netherlands), and then relocated again to London in 1860. While in London, Wiener is known to have worked with WJ Taylor. At some stage in his time in London, Wiener “obtained an appointment of Assistant Engraver at the Royal Mintxi”. This was certainly a productive time, if only measured by the evidence shown in English Silver Coinage, which lists no less than 35 unique pattern shillings created by Wiener in partnership with L.C Wyon during his time at the Royal Mintxii.

Wiener was appointed Chief-engraver of the Portuguese coins at Lisbon in 1864, and finally returned to Brussels in 1867, after which he apparently dedicated the majority of his time to the production of medals. Charles Wiener died in Brussels on August 15th, 1888 at the age of 57. The Belgian State Medal Cabinet apparently contains a British pattern sovereign dated 1863 engraved by Wiener, as well as several models of this obverse struck in other metalsxiii.
It was obviously during Wiener's during time in London that he came to execute work for Taylor, presumably engraving patterns for a range of projects.

The JG Murdoch collection, sold by Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge in London between March 15th and 19th 1904, included an extensive range of English patterns in gold of most denominations, including nine patterns by Taylor & Wiener.  They were purchased by a watch maker by the name of Mr. Evan Roberts and remained in his family for over one hundred years. These coins re-surfaced on April 18th 2008, at a small auction room in Plymouth (UK). It created quite a stir within the UK numismatic community and was reported in the June 2008 edition of Coin News magazinexiv.

The Plymouth auction included six pattern British half florins and three pattern shillings, all struck in goldxv. There were two different reverse designs used on the half florins, and one reverse design for the shillings. Three different obverse designs were used across both denominations, these correspond with those engraved by Wiener for Taylor's Kangaroo Office patterns:

The first three half florins featured a reverse with the date depicted in numerals, the second three half-florins featured a reverse with the date depicted in Roman numerals. The reverses of the shillings were undated, but were attributed by the auctioneer as having the date of 1865.

The series of undated pattern British shillings struck by Taylor in silver, each with a plain edge and the three busts of Victoria engraved by Wiener, are attributed by the British numismatists Seaby, Rayner & Reeds to between 1863 and 1865xvi. These pattern shillings have been described by the American auctioneers Goldberg & Goldberg as being “One of a delightful series of the 1860s and 1870s, experiments all, showing off engraving talents.”

This pattern of production was also followed by Taylor in relation to the Washington Draped Bust copper tokens of the United States – proofs, as well as several restrike varieties in gold; silver; copper; aluminum; gilt and pewter have been recorded. Minor variants and several mules Washington Draped Bust copper tokens are known to have been struck by Taylor between 1862 and 1880.

As the Kangaroo Office pattern shillings have been regularly albeit informally attributed to 1860, (the date from which Wiener first arrived in London), these patterns obviously pre-date his work with Taylor on the shilling and half-florin patterns of Great Britain, and certainly pre-date Wiener's work on shilling patterns with Wyon while at the Royal Mint. Whether or not the production of these patterns coincided with Taylor's attendance at the London International Exposition of 1862 remains under investigation. As such, they may have been used by both men to gain the attention of potential customers not only for Wiener's engraving talents, but also for Taylor's ability to produce medals, tokens or possibly even coinage related to Victoria's Silver Jubilee in 1862.

It is also possible that it was after these patterns were sighted, Wiener obtained his appointment to the Royal Mint. Following the conclusion of this exercise with Wiener, it appears that the majority of Taylor's business until the end of his career was in the production of commemorative medals for British clients.