Wellington City Milk Bottles and tokens
Milk delivered to the household gate was the norm for many years. The Milkmen collected the bottles of milk and cream from the city milk processing depot and delivered it each morning to the householder’s gate. Households indicated what they wanted by leaving out the same number of empty bottles, together with the correct tokens or cash (but tokens were preferred to prevent theft of the cash).
The early tokens were metal but later were of plastic.
The early milk bottles had cardboard seals but these were later replaced with bottles that took a tin foil seal.
The empty bottles were returned to the city milk depot where they were cleaned and reused.
The arrival of supermarkets saw the demise of Milkmen and their home deliveries.