A Foundation Member Looks Back
By Victor Des Vages
This article was originally published in the South African Numismatic Journal (Number 8) in March 1974. Victor des Vages was a member of the first committee of the old South African Numismatic Society that had its first meeting on the 29th of August 1941 in Rosebank, Cape Town. He was later granted an honorary life membership of the society. The pictures in this article have been added by the WCNS.
It was during the period of my life when I was a Petty Officer on His Majesty’s South African Ship (H.M.S.A.S.) Protea, the Survey vessel of the South African Navy, that we called at Durban to replenish our bunkers with Welsh coal (South African coal did not agree with the digestion of “Miss Protea”) before commencing a survey of the coast-line from Port Natal to the Bashee River north of East London, that I was badly bitten by the Numismatic bug.
H.M.S.A.S. Protea
Source: W.J. Brunell
It happened when I was purchasing a book of tram tickets at the Municipal Tramway Office. I tendered a one-pound note and in the change which I received was a Queen Victoria Crown dated 1891. As this date happened to be the year of my birth, I decided to keep the coin. (I still have it!).
I decided to visit the Indian quarter of the City, and there I saw British Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns, Kruger Sovereigns (or rather Ponde and half Ponde) together with British Crowns, Kruger five-shilling pieces and numerous foreign gold and silver coins. Sovereigns and Ponde could be purchased for a couple of pounds, the British coins being more expensive than the Krugers.
The large silver crown-size coins were in great demand as these Indian craftsmen were very clever at gouging out the silver around the design of the coin and filling in with enamel. When sold as jewellery these pieces usually sold at £1 to £4 according to the amount of enamel work.
Enamelled brooch made from a Victorian crown of 1895.
Source: Lockdales Auctioneers
Crowns and Kruger five Shilling pieces could be purchased for 12/6 to £2 depending on the quality of the coin. Dates did not matter, therefore one could purchase rare dates for the same price as those which were common or plentiful.
Many rare gold and silver coins must have found their way into the crucibles of the Indian jewellers. I have seen some of them at work. They would attach the bellows handle to their big toe by means of a piece of string and by moving their foot up and down they would supply a current of air to the fire under the crucible, while with their hands they fashioned a piece of jewellery.
I left the Navy during the year 1933. My wife and I established “Chislehurst” Guest House at Rosebank near Cape Town, with my wife as manageress. I accepted a position as cashier with the old Cape Town Tramway Company. There we handled thousands of pounds in notes and coins every day. I used to come across tokens, foreign coins and forgeries which were tendered by conductors with their takings, in the hope that the cashier would not notice them. They should of course have been returned to the passengers who offered them, but the conductors being busy persons during rush periods could not scrutinize each coin, and were quite frequently taken in.
The conductor would naturally not want to carry the can, so he would try to pass them off to the cashier. If the cashier accepted the coin he immediately became responsible, and if for instance the coin was of florin size he would be required to reimburse his cash with a 2/- piece. Kruger coins of all denominations often came in. They, and British coins, being legal tender were accepted without question. I used to find quite a few Crowns, and British silver coins dating back to George III. Sometimes four penny pieces were paid in, in place of sixpences. Tokens of J. W. Irwin, Tea Merchants, Waterkant Street, Cape Town; of E. K. Green, Wine and Spirit dealers; and of other local merchants turned up quite frequently.
Tokens of J.W. Irwin (left) and E.K. Green (right)
Sources: Heritage Auctions and Bobshop
Counterfeits most usually found were dud florins and half-crowns. They could usually be easily detected as they felt soapy to the touch. Some were cleverly made while others were very crude. On one occasion I found a one-pound note cleverly split in half. This was a new note, and I believe that splitting can only be done with new notes by an expert. While digging a trench outside the Tramway Office, workmen came across a George III “Cartwheel” penny in good condition. These coins and also the larger two penny pieces used to be found in Government Avenue and elsewhere in Cape Town. I remember some were found on the Sonneblom hillside when digging trenches or foundations for houses.
During the First World War due to the scarcity of small change the tramway company had issued tokens for a penny and halfpenny. These tokens were made of celluloid in various colours with the value on one side and on the other advertisements for Tower Paraffin, All Gold Jam, Nectar Tea, and so forth. Many of these tokens were never redeemed, but for years the unredeemed tokens had to be accounted for by the Company, until the amount was finally written off. Occasionally the odd one was brought in.
Source: Western Cape Numismatic Society
I eventually left the Tramway Company and joined a large firm of wholesale wine and spirit merchants, later becoming office manager of their subsidiary company Henry C. Collison Limited. This was one of the oldest wine and spirit merchants in the country. Their wholesale department was on the corner of the Sir Lowry Road and Russell Street, Cape Town (between the Castle and Toll Gate).
The building dated back to the days of the Dutch East India Company. The portion of the building facing Russell Street, was built entirely of stone. It had a flat roof with a fireproof-ceiling (brandsolder) and a floor of stone. This portion of the building was used as a stable by the garrison stationed at the Cape, and later as a store by Collison Limited. The buildings have since been demolished.
It was during this period that the idea came to me to start a coin club in Cape Town. I met a Mr. Hayne one day while searching for coins in a pawnbroker’s shop in Long Street. We got talking and he mentioned that he bought and sold coins and invited me out to his house which was on the Beach Road, Mouille Point. There I found he had hundreds of coins from all parts of the world. Hayne was actually a stamp dealer, but embraced coins as a side line. I acquired many gold, silver and copper coins as well as medals from him, and it was he who told me about other collectors. There was, he said, the victualling storekeeper of the S.A.R. in Newmarket Street, who turned out to be Mr. Ken Alexander, of Queen Victoria Road, Claremont.
Then there was Mr. Jack Piek, of Cambridge Road, Observatory, and Major Knobel of the Castle, Cape Town. When I called on this gentleman I found that I knew him quite well as both of us had served on the committee of the Union Jack Club, Cape Town. (This club was run by the authorities for the benefit of naval as well as military personnel. It was situated on the corner of Bouquet and St. John’s Streets, Cape Town. Before the First World War it had been the German Club.) I also found that Mr. Fred Wagener of Rondebosch, a S.A.C.S. schoolmaster, was interested in coins. Then there was a Mr. Kruger and a Mr. P. J. Els.
I eventually arranged with these gentlemen to meet at “Chislehurst” one Sunday afternoon where we discussed our particular interest in numismatics and decided to meet again at a later date to discuss the formation of a coin club. In the interim I wrote to a few numismatic societies in Britain, who supplied me with copies of their rules, and other information. On the 29th August, 1941 we met again at “Chislehurst” and decided to establish the “Cape Town Coin Club”.
Minutes of the first meeting held on Friday 29th of August, 1941.
Source: Western Cape Numismatic Society
Jack Piek was elected president, and Fred Wagener and I agreed to act as joint Honorary Secretaries. At the very next meeting, Mr. Hayne suggested that we should change the name from “The Cape Town Coin Club” to the “South African Numismatic Society” as he thought that we should establish a society on a national basis as it would be the first of its kind in the Union. All present agreed to the suggestion and we have been the South African Numismatic Society ever since. We invited the South African Mint and throughout the Union, Rhodesia and Portuguese Mozambique to become associate members of the Society.
The picture of J.L. Piek (“Oom Jack”) with his obituary, was published in the first issue of the South African Numismatic Journal dated September 1964. Jack Piek was the first President of the South African Numismatic Society and was one of the first collectors of South African tokens.
On the occasion of the royal family’s visit to South Africa in 1947, I put it to the members of the Society that we should suggest that the Government should consider striking a five-shilling piece to commemorate the royal visit. We received a letter from the Department of Finance stating that Dr. Holloway, the Secretary for Finance, would meet a small deputation from the Society to discuss the matter. We of course accepted his invitation with alacrity and a deputation consisting of Mr. Alexander, Mr. Morris and myself duly met Dr. Holloway. He told us that the Government was favourably disposed to the idea and asked us what form the design should take. We suggested the conjoined busts of the King and Queen for the obverse, and a Protea for the reverse.
Dr. Holloway told us that the Minister, Mr. Hofmeyr, would put the matter to General Smuts who was in Britain arranging the visit, and that he (Dr. Holloway) would arrange another meeting with us at a later date to finalise the matter. We were told at the next meeting that General Smuts approved of the crown being struck, but that that the Queen’s head could not appear as she was not Queen Regnant. The obverse would have to be the King’s head alone.
We were also told that the Cabinet did not favour the Protea for the reverse design. We then suggested a springbok as it represented the whole of the Union. This was accepted and a special Act of Parliament was passed to enable our beautiful royal visit crown to be struck with Coert Steynberg’s well-known springbok design on the reverse. We were of course delighted when it was subsequently decided to keep the five-shilling piece as a regular part of our coinage.
South African Crown (5-Shillings) of 1947
Source: NGC
During our negotiations with the Government we tried to persuade them to strike one or two of these crown pieces in gold. I remember we particularly suggested that a specimen in gold should be presented to Princess Elizabeth (the present Queen) on her twenty-first birthday which she celebrated in Cape Town. Unfortunately there were legal snags and our representations were not successful.
Source: Central News Agency, Johannesburg.
I had a lot of fun during my collecting days coins used to turn up in strange places. I remember that during a visit to Koffiefontein in the Orange Free State I obtained a number of American silver dollars from an old lady whose grandfather had come to South Africa in the early days of the diamond mines. I remember getting those dollars in exchange for some nice Kruger silver.
Then I remember the time when I got a proof South African first-issue sovereign of 1923 from a bank-teller in Rondebosch — at bank value of about fifty-eight shillings! That piece is in the collection of one of our leading collectors now, but he paid a bit more for it than I did!
In the early days of the Society we used to meet in one another’s homes, and we used to exchange coins with each other without worrying much about “current market value”. Of course values were nothing like what they are today — imagine a Veld Pond at 10 pounds! — but I do think we had more fun, and I certainly made some good friends. I'm glad that that Tramway cashier handed me that Victorian crown forty years ago!