New Guinea Head Tax Tokens
by John Phipps

As a Tax Token collector, you should always be on the lookout for tax tokens and related material. That is how you find unique and possibly low-cost items to add to your collection. Doing just that, I was looking through the catalog for the Kagin's March 2021 Auction and found a lot in the March 15, Session 4, The starting bid is $10. Estimated price $100 - $250. The description says it is from Here is the image from the catalog.

As you can see, the catalog image is very colorful and eye catching! A bidder might be bidding for the photo as much as the tokens!Well, I thought I would do some further investigation before I decided on bidding. Here is what I discovered. In 1914, Australian/British forces captured German New Guinea. After World War I, in 1920, the League of Nations mandated New Guinea to be governed by Australia. This continued until 1973 when Papua New Guinea gained independence with the only interruption being the Japanese invasion during World War II.

In the 1930s, New Guinea was gearing up mining operations and there was a labor shortage. As a solution to the labor shortage, Australia introduced a system of indentured labor. At the time the British government was recommending that all its colonies abandon such practices. This system required those who did not work to pay an annual 10 shilling At the time, a typical wage was 5 shillings per month. This pushed many natives into the work force as a matter of economics. The token was to be always on display. Usually, it was worn on a necklace. Failure to have the token on display was imprisonment. That certainly does not look like this token. This one is worn on a headband and says on it. I needed to do more research.

In the 1940s, Australia had badges made for (village chiefs) and (their assistants). The badges were struck by Amors in Sydney. These badges were worn as part of a headdress and were a sign of authority and pride. As a result, they were highly polished.

I believe that the Kagin's auction lot is a and Badge and not a So, I started searching the internet for images of New Guinea Head Tax Tokens. In an auction by Noble Numismatics Pty. Ltd., on November 26-29, 2013, I found a 1932-1933 Head Tax Token that sold for $90 (hammer). Here is an image from that catalog.

Well, I discovered all this on a Saturday, two weeks before the auction. Kagin's Auctions would not be in the office until Monday, so I had to wait until then to call then. Their response was that they had some sequence errors and were working around the clock to get them corrected. In general, I felt that they knew that they had a lot of cleaning up to do and this was just one of many. Later that Monday, Kagin's Auctions removed the images. It was replaced with,

On Friday morning a week before the auction, Kagin's Auction had placed the correct image with the description. Here is the new image. Now, all that is left to do is wait and to decide if I am bidding.

Well, on the day of the auction, the New Guinea Head Tax Token sold for $60 plus 20% buyer's premium plus shipping. I didn't submit a bid. With the it would have cost me over $100 and although this is an interesting piece my collection is simply fine without it.