These two men were in business together from 1857, but their partnership dates from 1 November 1858, when Walter Day took Francis Louis Mieville into partnership in his hardware business. From 1851 Day had run a hardware business in Princes Street, Dunedin. It is not clear where their business was located, but it may well have also been in Princes Street. In addition to selling hardware, the partners were 'contractors, builders and storekeepers. Specialities were 'American cut nails' and 'Aberdeen Scythes''. The firm was licenced to sell powder, shot and firearms from 1861. Walter Day was appointed Sub-Treasurer and Accountant for the Province of Otago in 1862 and became Acting Provincial Treasurer. Mieville had been a sheep farmer in Mataura Mouth in 1853 and married the following year. By 1904 he was in London (Williams & Sutherland, 1950).

The business bore the names of both men before the announcement of the partnership, as their penny token was issued in 1857. Stamps from the dies for the token were found in the records of Heaton and Sons, in Birmingham, raising doubts about the previously held belief that their tokens were made by W.J. Taylor (Sweeny, 1981).

References:
Williams, H. G., & Sutherland, A. (1950). 'Otago Currency Token Issuers' in The New Zealand Numismatic Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, March, 1950. pp.15-16.
Andrews, A. (1921). Australasian Tokens and Coins, p.39.
Sweeny, J.O., (1981). A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint, 1981, p.245.

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