Numismatics & Philately Promoting each other in South Africa
Pierre H. Nortje (August 2024)
Numismatics, the study and collecting of coins, is a much older pursuit than our sister hobby, philately (stamp collecting), and the reason is simple – coins existed for much longer before the first postal stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1840. This was the so-called “Penny Black” that featured a profile of a young Queen Victoria. It is believed that stamp collecting started only 20 years later in the 1860s, especially among the European and American upper classes. In 1865 Stanley Gibbons' first catalogue was published and by the end of the 1860s, the first stamp albums were already produced.
Initially, stamps only featured the heads of the reigning kings, queens, presidents and statesmen but in the mid-1800s so-called pictorials featured animals, modes of travelling, historical events and other thematic (and collectable) depictions. For some reason, numismatics did not follow the same trend and it was universally accepted that coins feature the head of state on the obverse and the national coat of arms or some national symbol on the reverse. It is hard to believe that the first so-called commemorative coin in the USA was only struck in 1892, Great Britain in 1935 and South Africa in 1952.
The first stamp to feature a coin was the 5-shillings issue of 1861 in New South Wales, Australia.
It must however be stressed that the “coin” featuring Queen Victoria, was a fantasy piece as such a coin did not really exist. It should rather be termed a medallion, but a numismatic piece nonetheless.
Of interest is that the last Victorian Crown or 5-shilling piece (before 1861) was struck in 1847 and the denomination was only minted again in 1887.
During the 20th century coins and medals started to appear more frequently on stamps of virtually all nations, and were even issued as a series with different denominations as shown by this 1948 set from Israel showing ancient coins.
This practice was obviously beneficial to both hobbies, especially when stamps were also featured on coins as shown by this example, a 50 Pence piece of Gibraltar commemorating the 180th year of Britain’s first stamp, the Penny Black, in 2020.
The history of issuing stamps and coins in South Africa is quite different. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 by the amalgamation of the Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State and the Transvaal (formerly the ZAR), all these entities have been issuing their own stamps for many years. As were start-ups and short-lived republics like the Nieuwe Republic and Stellaland. When the Union was formed, it issued a stamp in its first year (1910) commemorating the opening of the Union parliament, and 3 years later, in 1913, a definitive set consisting of 15 denominations.
Regarding our coinage, it was only the ZAR (Transvaal) that issued its own coinage before the union, and it was only in 1923 that coins for the greater South Africa were struck. In the half a century that the Union of South Africa issued stamps, none however future a numismatic theme. When the Republic was formed in 1961, this trend continued for almost a quarter of a century.
The first coin to feature on a South African stamp was fittingly the first coin struck for South Africa, the Burgerspond of 1874. On 6 April 1974, the South African Post Office issued the 9c to coincide with the 5th Numismatic Convention that was held at Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg and attended by the Prime Minister, Mr B.J. Vorster. The stamp on an official first-day cover is shown below.
Then followed a dry period of many years before a coin was again depicted on a South African stamp, and it was actually both the same coin and stamp that was featured! On 9 October 2010, the Post Office issued a sheetlet entitled “Celebrating Print Techniques on South African Stamps”. The stamps on the sheet were all so-called Standard Postage issues, showing no value but equal to R2.40. The Burgerspond was again featured.
This was actually the last time a South African stamp depicted a coin, although it must be mentioned that when the South African Post Office issued a First Day Cover for the Presidential Inauguration in 1994, a proof R5, a physical coin, was displayed on the front of the envelope.
However, it must be pointed out that the Transkei, a pseudo-national homeland during the apartheid era, issued a series of 4 stamps entitled The Grosvenor Shipwreck in 1984. The 40c denomination stamp depicted some treasures from the wreck including six coins.
It seems that medals had more luck than coins making an appearance on our stamps. The first year that medals featured was in 1984 when 4 military decorations were shown being the Pro Patria medal, De Wet Decoration, John Chard decoration and the Honoris Crux decoration.
This was followed in 1990 when our National Orders were depicted, being the Woltemade Kruis vir Dapperheid, Order of the Southern Cross, Orde van die Ster van SA, Order vir Voortreflike Diens and the Order of Good Hope.
In 2000, the Post Office issued two stamps commemorating writers during the period of the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902) and featured Sol Plaatje, Johanna Brand, Winston Churchill and Arthur Conan Doyle. The first medal featured (on the R1.30 stamp) is the Anglo Boer War Medal issued to officers and men who served in the combat forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State during the Second Boer War. The R4.40 stamp depicts the Queens Medal issued to British and Colonial forces fighting for Great Britain against the Boers.
It must be clear to the reader that since the first South African postage stamps were issued as far back as 1853 with the well-known Cape Triangular, items of numismatic interest were seldom featured on them. However, it must be pointed out that philately themes being featured on South African coins are even scarcer and the author could not find one single example.
But numismatics in general have been much kinder to promote and commemorate philately than vice versa, and in the last section of this paper, we will look at postage stamps that were featured on South African medallions throughout the years.
With the centenary (1869-1969) of the first Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek postage stamp, at least two medallion issues were struck, the first in 18ct gold by E. Tiessen (Pty) Ltd and the second for the centenary stamp exhibition, 'ZAR 100' held in Johannesburg from 6 to 11 October 1969. Apparently, the last mentioned issues were struck in bronze, silver and gold. The pictures below are from southafricanmedals.com.
In 1975, the stamps issued for the Siege of Mafeking during the Anglo Boer War was commemorated on a gold set of 18ct gold medals weighing 10 and 12 grams respectively. The pictures are from the authors own gallery.
For the so-called Stanley Gibbons International Stamp Exhibition held in South Africa in 1981, bronze and silver medals (Laidlaw number 0958) were struck by Toye, Kenning & Spence of London. The original stamp is also shown on a commemorative issue of the Union of South Africa of 1953.
In 1978 cardholders of Standard Bank were invited by the Africana Commemorative Mint to invest in the so-called “South African Stamp Heritage Collection”. Herman Steyn, the then Director of Philatelic Services at the Department of Posts and Telecommunications, was commissioned to select the most significant of South Africa’s stamp classics of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal (ZAR), Stellaland, Mafeking, British South African Company (Rhodesia), British Bechuanaland and Zululand.
Twenty-five stamps were selected, and proof-quality replicas of these were minted in gold-plated sterling silver. The medallions weigh from just less than 10 grams up to 23 grams each. According to the original prospectus, “…the master striking dies will be defaced on completion of the minting (process), to protect the integrity of the collection. They will be housed in the Postal Museum, Pretoria”. The collection comes set in a traditional handcrafted collector’s cabinet lined in velvet (A set of gold consisting of 10 replica stamps was also issued).
Postscript
As a matter of interest, stamps have been used in the past as emergency currency. As far back as the 1860s, United States stamps were encased as currency during the coin shortage caused by the Civil War.
Nearer to home, during the Anglo-Boer War, there was a shortage of small change and circulating coinage in Rhodesia. This led to the Government Secretary for Matabeleland (currently south-western Zimbabwe), Marshall Hole, to authorize the issuing of small cards bearing different denominations of the postage stamps of the British South African Company. On the reverse of the cards was the official hand-stamped signature of the Government Secretary.
£20,000 worth of cards circulated as emergency currency from 1 August to 1 October 1900 and was then withdrawn. Approximately £1,000 worth was still outstanding at the end of the period, and these issues are the source of the cards that are today highly sought after by collectors.
The currency cards were issued in denominations of 2d, 3d, 4d, 6d, 1/-, 2/-, 2/6, 4/-, 5/- and 10/-, and there are two types known, being either stamped ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE BULAWAYO, or ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE.
Source: Johan Potgieter