Coins, Paper Money, Tokens and Historical Medals

NEW ZEALAND, Exhibition, 1865, a copper award medal, unsigned (by J. Wyon), standing Maori holding spear, plough and kiwi behind, palm tree and mountains in background, rev. pattern of ferns and other flora, edge named (Edward Rumsey), 64mm (Morel 1865/1). Extremely fine or better, very rare £300-400

The first New Zealand Exhibition was held at Dunedin from 12 January to 6 May 1865. The prize medal, designed by Joseph Wyon, was struck at the Royal Mint, London, from dies cut by Joseph Moore. Edward Rumsey (1824-1909), a pupil of the great Victorian architect George Gilbert Scott, emigrated first to Australia, then moved from Melbourne to Dunedin at the time of the 1861 gold rush. As a Dunedin architect, he won a competition for a new Government House in Auckland; however, it was never built. Instead, although his designs for the Supreme Court building and the General Post Office in Auckland had not won prizes, he was commissioned to build them. At the 1865 Exhibition he showed his plans for a cathedral which had won a gold medal at the Royal Academy in London in 1847. This time the plans earned him only a bronze award, one of 87 struck