Samuel Hague Smith was born in Lincolnshire in 1840. He arrived in New Zealand in 1859 and established himself as an Ironmonger and shipowner based in Auckland. H.A. Robinson argues that Smith was a very patriotic man, as his steamers were named the Duke of Edinburgh and the Royal Alfred. Smith also placed a portrait of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, on the reverse of his tokens. He also achieved prominence as a politician. Robinson suggests that Smith's tokens may have been part of his successful campaign for the Newtown seat in the Provincial Council in 1870.

Smith fought during the Maori wars and was rewarded with a block of land on Auckland's waterfront at Northcote. In later life he moved to Sydney, where he became a director of the Colonial Mutual Life Insurance Company. He died in Sydney in 1917.

The Museum Victoria catalogue gives an approximate year of issue for his tokens as c.1862. There are six catalogued varieties (and a number that are not held by the Museum but have been described) of Smith's tokens, which were struck for him by Thomas Stokes of Melbourne.

References:
Robinson, H.A. (1974). 'Auckland Tradesmen's Tokens'. The New Zealand Numismatic Journal. May, p.142.

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