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Book: South African Coins and Patterns

Started by <k>, December 25, 2021, 04:19:24 PM

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<k>

South African Coins and Patterns.jpg

South African Coins and Patterns.


Our forum member africancoins recently alerted me to this book: Hern's Handbook South African Coins and Patterns.

The book comes in various editions, printed over many years. I did not find it on Amazon, but it is available from AbeBooks website.

I do not own this book. Have any forum members read it? If so, I would like to ask which periods it covers, and also how many patterns it shows.

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<k>

I am grateful to David Galt of Mowbray Collectables, New Zealand, for this message:

The Hern Handbook is the major regular South African Catalogue. It's good on the obscure stuff – especially scarcer trading bank notes, which we get a few of, and proof sets. I've actually got an extremely rare South Africa 1939 Proof Set in right now, and it gives the main details needed for that, although I'm not sure even Hern covers all the possible configurations of the sets. The book also covers patterns back to President Burgers 1874 and Griqua Town pieces of 1814-16, and all the Boer and Union of South Africa coins after that. There are two books – one on coins, one on notes. Prices are in rand but it gives major auction sales for rare pieces. So overall dates are from the earliest issues to the present day. Not everything is illustrated which is hardly surprising but there are a good number of illustrations.

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Mister T

Are there any patterns in the 1923-1960 that aren't covered by the main references?

And what are the different configurations of the 1939 proof set?

<k>

Quote from: Mister T on January 04, 2022, 01:24:51 AM
What are the different configurations of the 1939 proof set?

No different configurations are mentioned.

1939. SHORT SET (8 coins, from 2/6 to ¼D). Both the 1/- and the 6d are only available in the proof set. Issued in a blue Royal Mint cardboard case. It is impossible to collect a set of uncirculated coins for this year.




Some years, from 1952, are listed as LONG SET (11 coins, from £ to ¼D).
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<k>

Quote from: Mister T on January 04, 2022, 01:24:51 AM
Are there any patterns in the 1923-1960 that aren't covered by the main references?

I will return to this question later.
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See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

#5
I have the 2014/2015 edition of the book. It cost me just under GB 37.00 to have my second-hand version sent from South Africa to London. It took only 9 days to arrive after I ordered it.

The book is printed on high quality glossy paper. It measures 15 cm by 21 cm. It has 441 numbered pages.

I find some of the photos very small and would have liked to see a larger book.

The patterns that are photographed are all trial strikes (no sketch-only designs), with a single exception being a set of models from 1965.


Here I will the mention the notable patterns from the 1920s to the early 1930s that are photographed in the book.


QUARTER  PENNY.    Obverse: Portrait of King George V.   Reverse: Sparrows design (as seen on the issued ¼ penny).

1924. Square.  23.5 mm by 19.73 mm.

1924. Square design struck on  a circular blank, in bronze. Two versions:  square and square with a polygonal inner rim.

1924. Scalloped, 20.7 mm. Also scalloped design struck on a circular blank, (round with scalloped inner rim), 20.1 mm.

1924. Square design struck on  a circular blank, in gold, 23.47 mm.

1925. Square, but with a corner pointing upwards.  Nickel-plated.  23.07 mm by 20.3 mm.


N.B. By "square", I mean square with rounded corners.


HALF PENNY.  Obverse design: Portrait of King George V.  Reverse: Ship design  (as seen on the issued ½ penny).

1924. Scalloped. Bronze.  25.4 mm.


1930s.

1932. Gold-plated bronze rand, dually denominated as 10 Fls (10 florins?). With modern coat of arms reverse: gemsbok and springbok, "DEUS REGNAT".

1932. 2 cents, bronze. Reverse: Denomination "2c" within a circle, and year and country name in Afrikaans and English in the outer circle.

Year unknown, but probably 1942: George VI portrait, uniface, on square (with rounded corners) 1/4d and 1/2d, both with a corner pointing upwards.


The 1920s designs are concerned with shape and remind me of the Australian kookaburra trials of that era.

However, the various kookaburra designs were never used on issued Australian coins.  The sparrows and ship designs were used on South African coins.

The 1930s designs show the familiar coat of arms at that time, with springbok and gemsbok, or else the denomination only.

The trials of the 1920s and 1930s are not primarily concerned with alternative designs to the ones that we know on the existing coinage.
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<k>

#6
The pre-Union patterns are included in the book, but they are relatively well known and can be found on Numista.

I never knew of the patterns of the 1920s or 1930s, so I am pleased that I bought the book, as it has satisfied my curiosity.

Later I will describe the trials and patterns of the 1960s.


The bulk of the book is taken up by the many collector issues from the 1990s into the present century.


In my previous post, when I describe the "square with rounded corners" trials as having a corner pointing upwards, I mean like this:




All the legends on the square South African trials and patterns are circular and do not follow the sides of the square.
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<k>

#7
Now I will look at a few of the trials of the Republic of South Africa. The authorities were interested to see if the higher denominations of the first series, which was issued in 1961, would work in nickel. Some trials were therefore made by taking the dies of some of the existing coins and obliterating the denomination value that appeared in the exergue. This is described as the so-called "Trial pattern series".

A nickel 50 cents trial was produced, but using the reverse design of the existing 20 cents coin. The numerals were displayed half way up the shield and separated by it: "5" on one side, "0" on the other. The issued 50 cents coin showed the famous springbok design, so I do not know why they might have wanted to replace it.

The 10 cents design was placed on the 20 cents trial, and the numerals appeared either side of the allegorical figure of "Hope".

The 5 cents design was placed on the 10 cents trial, and the numerals appeared either side of the protea stalk.

The 2½ cents design was placed on the 5 cents trial, with "5c" in the exergue instead of "2½c" and minus the usual 5 bundles around the protea.

There were also trials using the 2½ and 5 cents reverse designs, but showing no denomination. These were bronze trials for the 1cent, 2 cents and 2½ trials. There was no issued 2 cents coin at this stage. The 1 cent coin was in brass, while the 2½ and 5 cents coins were still made of 50% silver.


None of these trials was translated into issued designs.

Below you see the issued coins (not shown to scale).

Their designs, though with different numerals and sometimes none, were used on the trial pieces.


South Africa 2½c 1963.jpg



South Africa 5c 1963.jpg



South Africa 20c 1963.jpg



South Africa 10c 1961.jpg   
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<k>

#8


South Africa: pattern 10 cents of featuring a springbok.


Now I will move on to the second coin design series of the Republic, which was issued in 1965. A set of trials known as the Select Committee pattern series was minted in 1964.

The 1 and 2 cent trials were made of bronze but were smaller - with a diameter of 16.2 mm and 18.9 mm respectively - than the eventually issued coins. The other trial denominations were made of nickel. No rand trial coin was included, as the decision to issue a rand had not been taken yet. The trials were minted in this alignment: ↑↓ .

Compared to the coins that were eventually issued, the obverse profile portrait of van Riebeeck was larger, nearer to the left edge, and curly-headed, and the size of the lettering was larger. The reverse designs were the same as on the coins eventually issued, except for the original springbok design that was used on the 10 cents trial coin. When the later decision was made to add a 1 rand coin featuring a different springbok design, the 10 cents coin was given a design of an aloe plant.

Some 10 cents trials were produced where the denomination numerals were placed closer to the top parts of the plant. This was considered confusing, so the size of the aloe was fractionally reduced and moved closer to the bottom of the coin, while the numerals were moved higher up.



South Africa 10 cents 1965.jpg

The issued 10 cents coin of 1965.
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<k>

The book also shows the Bilingual Photo-Coin Set dated 1965. This was a photograph of set of models (presumably in plaster) showing the proposed designs of the planned new series of 1965.

In this set, the portrait of Jan van Riebeeck was similar to, but much larger than, the portrait on the eventually issued coins, reaching almost the outer rim. The author of the book describes the portrait as having "flowing curly hair, looking rather as if it was caught up in a long hairnet. The year 1965 was shown on the very bottom edge of the portrait itself. It was squeeze in there, in order to allow room for a bilingual inscription on the right-hand side of the obverse. The inscription was as follows:

SUID-AFRIKA · SOUTH AFRICA

The authorities were keen to produce a coin that carried the country name in both languages. As you will know, the eventual new 1965 series came with two different obverses: one showing the country name in Afrikaans and the other in English. The authorities wanted to avoid this, but the South African Mint produced the photo-coin set in order to show them that this would make the obverse look very cramped and that therefore it was impractical.

The other feature of the photo-coin set was that it showed a different version of a springbok on the 10 cents trial coin. Here the springbok was jumping, as in the earlier 10 cents version shown upthread, but facing right and closer to the rim of the coin surface. It was similar to but clearly different from the earlier springbok design above. The large numerals "10" appeared at the top left-hand corner.

The half cent of the photo-coin set showed the wildebeest design that eventually appeared on the 2 cents coin, but at the size of a 1 cent coin! The photo-coin set included no 1 cent or 2 cents pieces.

Eventually, a nickel 5 cents trial piece was minted, with the bilingual obverse and the crane bird on the reverse. An estimated 15 of these pieces were produced. They  convinced the authorities that a bilingual obverse would indeed not be ideal.
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<k>

The book also illustrates a 1967-dated bronze ½ cent trial piece (diameter 16.23 mm) that shows the portrait of President Verwoerd on the obverse and on the reverse the springbok design, both from the  issued silver 1 rand coin of that time. However, unlike on the eventual 1 rand coin, no denomination appears on the ½ cent trial obverse, only the words SOLI DEO GLORIA.

In 1968, gold 1 rand and 2 rand trial pieces were produced - an estimated 8 pieces each. The obverse showed the standard portrait of President Charles Swart from the issued 1968 coins, while the reverse show the bare coat of arms, as it would appear on the issued 1 rand coin, but with out any legend - that is, without "1" and "R" or "2" and "R" (denoting the denomination) flanking the coat of arms.
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<k>

#11
South Africa 2 rand trial sketch or model.jpg

South Africa 2 rand trial model.


Finally, the book also mentions two versions of a leopard design.

They were intended for the proposed 2 rand circulation coin of 1989.


One version shows the letters "P1" at the top right of the reverse and the other shows "P2".

The first is a standard circular trial piece, while the second is circular but with a squarish inner rim.


See our forum member squarecoinman's topic, South Africa: Unrealized designs by Linda Lotriet.
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See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

There are various other trials in this book that I have not described, including some in aluminium. It is well worth buying the book to see all the illustrations.

Above all, the edition of the book that I have also includes all the very many issued South African circulation and collector coins up to 2015, so it is well worth the price.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.