Coins and Australia - J. Taylor - Baker - Commercial and merchant tokens

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J. Taylor - Baker

Description

John Taylor was a baker in England, and arrived in Australia in 1852. He built a bakery on the corner of Dana and Raglan Streets in 1856 and named it the 'Red House', developing a turnover of £20,000 a year.

Mr Taylor was very active in his community, sitting on the committee of organisations such as the Old Colonist's Association, Benevolent Asylum, Ballarat Hospital, and Mechanics Institute. He was a director of the National Insurance Co. of Ballarat, and several mining companies, as well as holding rank in both the Masons and the Independent Order of Oddfellows.

His tokens, made for him by Thomas Stokes of Melbourne, all differ in their reverses. All three of these were common reverses on tokens by Stokes, and all of Taylor's tokens were issued in 1862. One uses the Australian arms of the Kangaroo and Emu with motto 'Advance Australia,' while another uses the wheat sheaf and the same motto, and the third bears the vine branch and motto 'In vino veritas.'