ILLAWARRA GENERAL STORES AND THE LLOYD TOKEN

Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin, Feb 1962, p. 46-47 Summary: article written by J. Clyde Smith, on the Lloyd's general store 18591861 and the rare token that the business issued.

"THE W. F. & D. L. LLOYD TOKEN" by J. CLYDE SMITH (Member). (Article in the Australian Numismatic Society Report - Vol. XXVI - January, 1962). The I.H. Society has in its possession a penny token issued by W. F. & D. L. Lloyd, Storekeepers of Wollongong, in 1859. Such tokens, usually of one penny and halfpenny value, were issued in great numbers in Australia in the fifties and sixties. Their purpose was to overcome the shortage of small change, but they served also as on advertising media and hove preserved for us a most interesting record of the period. While the 1 d. and td. tokens of W. F. & D. L. Lloyd, of Wollongong (Andrews Nos. 331 & 332) may be hard to acquire, information about the Lloyds themselves has been even more difficult to obtain, the h historians of the Illawarra district centred on Wollongong, having given them no mention that I could find. An incomplete search of local newspapers of the period ( 1859 is the date on their tokens) has given at least a beginning and on ending to their Wollongong story, over the short period of almost exactly two years. The story begins in the Illawarra Mercury of April 11, 1859: " ILLAWARRA GENERAL STORES'' Mr. George Hewlett begs to offer his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for the liberal support he has enjoyed since he has been in business and to inform them that finding longer continuance there is likely to materially affect his health he has disposed of the goodwill, stock, etc., to Messrs. W. F. & D. L. Lloyd, for whom he would solicit the same amount of patronage bestowed on himself; feeling assured that the Messrs. Lloyds will continue to transact business upon the some

upright principles that George Hewlett has always endeavoured to maintain. He is also confident that they possess very superior advantages for selecting and importing every description of merchandise. George Hewlett had just been elected an Alderman of the newly formed Wollongong Council. He retained the Bank Agency and Post Office and moved into new offices after vacating his store. The Lloyds had a clearing sole of Hewlett's Stock, mode "extensive alterations" to the store and re-opened with an entirely new stock of goods selected expressly for this market, on May 11, 1859. Their advertisements from this time on were much more detailed and effusive thon their competitors. Their interests were wide-"Mercers, Drapers, Milliners, Grocers, Italian Warehousemen, Wine and Spirit Merchants, General Importers"- And also agents for the Liverpool and London Fire and Life Insurance Company. They boasted "The Messrs. L10yds feel perfectly satisfied with the result of an entirely new system introduced by them in this district Small Profits and Quick Returns." Their antecedents were "20 years experience in business"; "Mr. Wm. F. Lloyd, long resident in the colony, introduced at the Australian Tea Mart, Sydney, the celebrated concentrated Turkey Coffee." Wm. F. Lloyd had charge of the Grocery Department, D. L. Lloyd the Drapery Dept., and Mrs. D. L. Lloyd the Millinery Dept. Their tokens must have been ordered very soon after establishing their business, to be dated 1859. Their claim "Colonial produce taken in exchange" would have resulted in them handling some of the Wollongong "exports" listed -e.g. for January 1859- butter, pigs, calves, horses, wheat, poultry, eggs, cheese, tallow, maize, potatoes, leather, grass, seed, bran, sheepskins, honey, brushwood, timber,-and most interestingly 55 bundles of cabbage tree hands, doubtless for hat making. And then, two years later, from the Illawarra Express, "BARGAINS!!! BARGAINS!!! Clearing Out Sale-Leaving the Premises. John Biggar is instructed by Mr. W. F. Lloyd to sell by auction, on Tuesday next, 23rd April, at 12 o'c1ock, at his Market, next Mr. Elliott's, Crown Street, the whole of his Stock of Merchandise, among which will be found Gentlemen's handsome writing desks. Splendid framed and glazed engravings. Double barrel guns. Handsome. four post bedsteads.

Chest of Drawers, etc. 2 Saddles and bridles. 2 Gigs and sets of harness. Horses, etc., etc. The auctioneer is instructed to clear off everything in the place to the highest bidder as Mr. Lloyd has given up the premises; every lot will therefore be sold off without the least reserve. Terms, Liberal at sale." What had occurred in the intervening period is not yet known, the partnership had obviously broken up previously and there is some evidence that D. L. Lloyd had opened a drapery in Sydney, independently. The Lloyds had been in business in Wollongong from Tuesday, 12thApril, 1859, when they sold off George Hewlett's stock, to Tuesday, 23rd April, 1861, when their closing auction began.