Product Information

Each coin is encased in an acrylic capsule to allow the customer to view both sides of the coin without causing any damage. Handsomely presented in a specially designed case the coins are all 22 carat gold selected from the original issues to be of ?very fine? quality or better, are accompanied by a free booklet with an incorporated Certificate of Authenticity attesting to their quality and low issue limit of only 100 collections available worldwide.

Background & History

The history of the South African gold rush is a fascinating chapter in the story of gold coins and one to which the British gold sovereign is inextricably linked. Gold had been found in eastern Transvaal as early as 1873 but it was the discovery of the huge gold reefs in the Witwatersrand Basin in 1886 that ultimately led to the opening of a branch of the Royal Mint in Pretoria. The unofficial veldponds (gold ?field pounds? crudely struck at Pilgrim?s Reef in 1902) had already highlighted a growing
demand for a local gold coinage but the gold embargo and the perceived danger of transporting gold for coining during the FirstWorld War finally led to the Pretoria Mint Act of 1919.

The Act made provision for the Royal Mint branch to strike gold sovereigns from locally mined gold with the proviso that the dies be supplied by the Royal Mint in London and that a mintmark SA be included to indicate the coin?s origin. Minting commenced in 1923 and gold sovereigns earing the head of George V were struck there every year until 1932. Pretoria Mint sovereigns were the only ones to be struck anywhere in the world that year.

They were also the last sovereigns to be struck at Pretoria although not the last gold bullion coins. During the reign of George VI, gold pounds and half-pounds were struck there in 1952, but although struck to the same specifications as sovereigns and half-sovereigns, were more distinctive of South Africa featuring on the reverse a charming depiction of a springbok, the graceful gazelle that inhabits the dry inland areas of south and south west Africa. Apart from the Proof sovereigns struck in Britain in the Coronation year 1937, these were the only gold coins to bear the head of George VI.

These gold coins continued to be struck at Pretoria during the reign of the present Queen and combined her portrait with the springbok design. From 1961 the new decimal coinage of South Africa?s First Republic was designated the rand ? the name being taken from Witwatersrand ? with the gold R2 corresponding to the gold sovereign and the R1, the half-sovereign. The springbok continued to feature on the new gold coins but the obverse bore the portrait of Johan Anthoniszoon ?Jan? van Riebeeck (1619-1677), the founder of Cape Town, with the motto ?Unity is Strength? in both English and Afrikaans.