Details:

3P Diameter:16,3mm Weight: 2,61gr - Gold

Description:

KRUGER COINAGE - 1892 TO 1900 ZAR ISSUES

In 1890/91 a lease was granted to the Nationale Bank of the ZAR to establish a State Mint in Pretoria. The coins were to be identical in weight with the prescription of the British Coinage Act of 1870. President Kruger, anxious to get the new coins in circulation had placed orders for coins dated 1892 with the Berlin Imperial Mint.

The first consignment of pounds, half pounds and crowns arrived with two shafts on the wagon and similar sized wheels as can be seen in the coat of arms on the reverse of the coins. This caused quite a stir and subsequent 1892 pounds and crowns were issued with correct single shaft wagons and the correct size of wheels, small in the front and larger wheels at the back. Futher consternation was caused by the Berlin 1892 issues. As was customary, the designer Otto Schultz had placed his initials (O.S.) below on the shoulder area of the bust of Paul Kruger as can be seen on the obverse

of the coins, only on the double shaft issues, which is Afrikaans for ox. The single shaft pound and the double shaft crowns are the scarcer items.

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SAMUEL MARKS - ONE OF SOUTH AFRICA'S GREAT INDUSTRIALISTS

Entrepreneur - Names: Marks, Sammy   Born: 1843, Lithuania   Died: 1920, Johannesburg  

The entrepreneur Samuel Marks was born in Lithuania in 1843. He arrived on African shores in 1868 where he began his career by hawking cheap jewellery and cutlery in Cape Town. Later he moved on to Kimberley where he went into business with his brother-in-law Isaac Lewis and Jules Porges. Together they formed the French Diamond Mining Company.

Following this Lewis and Marks decided to relocate to the Eastern Transvaal, and after trading in the boom-town of Barberton, established the African and European Investment Company. This company proceeded to become a major Rand finance house with controlling interests in several gold mines. An example of this is one of the companies he started, the Zuid-Afrikaanscheen Oranje Vrystaatsche Mineralen en Mijnbouvereeniging, which became the basis of the town Vereeniging. Marks also developed the Viljoen’s Drift coal mine and encouraged the expansion of the Witbank coalfields.