The “Single 9” overstamp 1898 Pond
This article is an extract from the book The Rarest of the Rare, P.H. Nortje (2022)
Source: NGCcoin.com
In a recently published list of the world’s most expensive coins, the top twenty are except for three, all North American coins.
The three exceptions are an Islamic medieval gold Dinar, an ancient Roman gold Aureus of Brutus, and a South African gold coin, the so-called “single 9” overstamped Paul Kruger Pond of 1898. All the coins in the top 20 list are extremely scarce, with the South African example unique.
In the South African Numismatic Society Newsletter of May 1954 (Vol.4 of No.8) the editor, Dr. Frank Mitchell reports on the “The Palace Collection of Egypt”, the collection of the ex-King Farouk.
He draws readers’ attention to lot number 902 offering a collection of 19 gold Kruger ponde, including an 1898 pond counter-marked “9” under the bust, and an “M” engraved on the bust. Dr. Mitchell is of the opinion that the coin is a forgery. The other 18 coins represented a complete set of Kruger gold coins including the double 9, the two varieties of the blank pond and the 1902 Veld Pond. The lot of 19 coins was sold for 655 Egyptian Pounds.
The following year, a few contributors to De Nummis, the Journal of the Transvaal Numismatic Society (Number 1, July 1955) responded to the sale of the single “9” at the Farouk auction.
A copy of a letter by A. Graff from Johannesburg dated 1 June 1954 was published. It was addressed to Messrs. Spink & Son (Two other London firms were involved with the auction, Baldwin & Co. to describe the coins and Sotheby & Co. to publish the catalogue). Graff, regarding the authenticity of the coin, is asking Spink for a picture “and any other information you may have about it”. Spink’s representative D. Growther, who had examined the coin in Cairo, wrote back on 4 June that he was of the opinion that the coin was a forgery.
Another opinion in the same De Nummis publication was written by S. Gordon regarding the then-recent sale of the coin. He says that if one considers that the value of the other 18 ponde in the lot was £350 at the most, it becomes clear that more than £300 was paid for the single 9. Gordon states that bidders must have been in possession and proof as to the validity of the coin. He says that he now has information that documents and letters exist that authenticate the coin as being struck by the Z.A.R. mint.
It thus looks as if some people at the sale were somehow assured that the coin was not a fake, while others like Spink’s Growther held the opposite view. This leads to the question if some people had “inside information” (the letters and documents Gordon refers to) while others did not?
Source: De Nummis, 1 July 1955
Lastly, a piece written by Isidor Kaplan was also printed in the same De Nummis publication. He says that he recently visited Dr. Froehlich in Port Elizabeth who showed him some of his recent acquisitions from the Farouk collection that Baldwin & Sons bought on his behalf. Kaplan states that it was his privilege to be the first to see these items as they had just arrived in South Africa.
He continues…
“The controversial M overstamp is a genuine specimen which originally came from the Pretoria Mint. All the documentary evidence accompanies this coin. The significance of this acquisition proves of enormous value to us in South Africa and I feel that Dr. Froehlich is to be complimented on his foresight in not allowing it to be bought by a foreign collector. Further research will doubtless prove most interesting to us all.”
In 1969, W. Bergman wrote a two-page article in the South African Numismatic Journal (No.5). On pages 158 and 159 a picture of the obverse of the coin is shown with the two original documents from 1899 accompanying it.
Source: W. Bergman
The first document “memorandum” is hand-written in Dutch on an official letterhead and dated 9 December 1899. It was written by the Mint Master of the Z.A.R. J. Perrin and addressed to the State Secretary of the Z.A.R., F.W. Reitz, who was also a former O.V.S. President. In his article, Bergman translated the letter into English as follows: -
“I have the honour to hand over to you an envelope (holding) a one-pound coin. And I certify herewith that this is the first gold coin which was struck during the war with England. It was struck on 2 November 1899 at 10.30 hours from dies made in and showing the year 1898 and shows a small figure 9 under the head of the President”
The second document is a short note typed on an official envelope of the United States Consulate in Pretoria. It is virtually a direct translation of Perrin’s document in English and ends with (The) Mint Director’s certificate accompanying it. Property of C.E. Macrum, U.S. Consul at Pretoria.
Here are more recent pictures of the two letters.
Source: Picture on the left from a Google search, but most probably from South Cape Coins, who has sold the coin twice. The picture on right from BidorBuy.com.
Who was Macrum?
Charles Everson Macrum was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on 19 September 1865, and when he was fourteen years old, moved with his parents to East Liverpool, Ohio. Working first as a bookkeeper, then as a secretary of a glass company until 1897 when he joined the clerical department of the First National Bank. He remained with the bank until May 1898, when he resigned to accept appointment as the United States Consul in Pretoria, South Africa, a year before the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War.
In December 1899 he resigned from this post and returned to East Liverpool, Ohio and in July of the following year became a traveling salesman for the National Glass Company of Pittsburg. He remained with this company for about one year and then joined a real estate business in East Liverpool until January of 1903 when he became involved with the Pottery Association.
In 1890, Charles E. Macrum married Eldora (born 1866), daughter of the late Samuel McHenry. The couple had at least one daughter Natalie, born in around 1892.
It is not known if the single 9 pond was disposed of by Macrum before his death in 1943, but the coin was certainly not passed on to his wife, as she died 6 years earlier in 1937.
Several sources state that most of King Farouk’s coin collection was purchased in the 1940s from American and European coin dealers. He seldom, if ever bought from private collectors, so the single 9 pond was probably either bought from a dealer who bought it from Marcum’s estate after his death in 1943, or Macrum disposed the coin during his lifetime and it eventually landed up in the hands of a dealer who sold it to Farouk. The two related documents luckily never parted with the coin, and one would assume that the dealer who first bought the coin saw their relevance and understood their importance for establishing the coin’s authenticity and provenance for the future.
Sources: Pictures of Macrum and Farouk from Google. The author has a personal copy of the Farouk sales catalogue.
Top left: Charles E. Macrum made the news when a congressional committee in Washington was appointed in 1900 to investigate his claims that members of the English government in Durban secretly opened American consulate letters sent from Pretoria to the USA the previous year.
Top right: King Farouk inspecting part of his vast coin collection. Sources state that the King purchased most of the coins in the 1940’s when the Egyptian pound was worth much more than ever before. This allowed him to put together quite an incredible collection - in gold alone approximately 8 500 coins and medals.
Bottom left and right: The Palace Collection Catalogue 1954. The South African gold coins were divided into three lots. The pictures of the ponds and Sammy Marks Tickey are unfortunately unclear and it is difficult to see what the dates on the ponde are.
On 11 May 2010, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) announced that they had certified the coin. The caption of the announcement reads:-.
Legendary South African Coin Certified by NGC - "King of South African Coins," the unique and historic 1898 Single 9 Pond, sells for a record multi-million rand price and is certified by NGC.
The announcement is hereby printed in full, as the author wishes to respond to some of their comments – see the sections in bold below.
The sale of South Africa's rarest and most celebrated coin, the 1898 Single 9 Pond, has been concluded for an unprecedented multi-million rand figure. The sale, like the prior two sales of the same coin, was facilitated by Mr. Walter Fivaz. The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, is thrilled to own such an impressive and important part of South Africa's heritage. The Single 9 has justifiably been dubbed the "King of South African Coins" and is among the most valuable rare coins in the world.
Upon completion of the purchase, the coin was promptly sent to NGC for certification. NGC was selected for its consistent grading, extensive South African numismatic knowledge and the prestige of its certification. The coin was graded MS 63 PL by NGC. The grade of MS 63 identifies it as a choice uncirculated example. Many coins of such illustrious provenance have been mishandled, and fortunately, this coin has retained its original surface quality. Additionally, the fields of the coin are mirror-like, indicating that it was struck from freshly polished dies. Accordingly, it has been designated PL, for proof-like, which is assigned to coins that possess some of the special attributes often seen on presentation coinage.
"We are very proud to certify such an important and historic coin. Seldom does a coin play so significant a role in cultural history, and for many years this coin has been considered the most coveted of all coins struck on the African continent," commented Ken Krah, NGC vice president, who heads NGC's World coin grading department. The details surrounding the creation of the Single 9 Pond form one of the most compelling stories in numismatics. The Single 9 was the first one-pound gold coin produced during the Anglo-Boer War between South Africa and the British Empire in 1899. At that time, the government of the South African Republic sought legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. One of the best ways to do this was to manufacture their own coins and currency. Since they did not have a facility to produce dies for coinage in South Africa, the government contracted with a mint in Germany to create dies for 1899 coinage. En route from Germany to the Transvaal, the shipment of dies was intercepted and seized by the British.
Still wanting to press forward on making their own coins, the government's solution was to use dies from 1898 and punch a 9 on the obverse of the 1898-dated coins. Once the first coin was made, they realized that the 9 was too large — it intruded on the bust of President Kruger. Only this first single coin was made with this punch, and all subsequent coins struck on this occasion were stamped with a pair of smaller nines. This second striking of coins is called the double 99 overstamp, and also comprises a rare and valuable South African coin; the single 9 stamp is unique.
The first coin, the Single 9, was immediately given to the United States Consul General, C.E. Macrum, as a means of confirming the South African Republic as an independent country with its own currency. Two pieces of correspondence concerning this event, one written by the government assayer at the time, J. Perrin, and the other by Macrum himself, still accompany the coin today. Macrum also had a small letter "M" engraved onto the coin, on the truncation of Kruger's bust, as a permanent marker of its provenance.
NGC's attribution for this coin includes the notation "'M' Monogram." Although the coin was marked post-striking by its first owner, the monogram was not factored into the grade assigned. "This is standard practice when grading coins with historically important post-minting marks," explained Krah. "Marks such as these actually help pedigree a coin. We believe that the Macrum mark on the base of the bust on the single 9 pond clearly falls into this historically significant category."
The full pedigree of the coin is glamorous and very interesting. After Macrum took possession of the coin it is hard to trace, until the auction of the "Palace Collections of Egypt" in 1954, the collection assembled by King Farouk of Egypt. In the catalogue, it is noted that he procured the coin in Paris some years before. The coin was auctioned off with 18 other South African coins from the King's enormous collection. Baldwin's of London bought it on behalf of Dr. Froelich from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, for a sum of 655 Egyptian pounds.
The coin then remained in South Africa. The next time the coin appeared in public sale was in the Days Postal Auction No. 9 in 1969, where it sold for R2 530. In 1983 it came up for auction again through the Phoenix Postal Auction No. 30. Then it sold for R132 000. In 1999, the centenary year of the Anglo-Boer War, the coin was sold privately by dealer Walter Fivaz on behalf of Mr. Kraay for R4.65 million. Shortly thereafter, in 2001, it was again sold privately for R9.8 million. This current sales price, although undisclosed, reportedly places this coin squarely on the roster of highest-value rare coin transactions.
Our comments: There is no evidence that the letter “M” was added to the coin because of a request by Macrum, or that it refers to the first letter in his surname. It just as well could have indicated that the coin was struck by the “Munt” (the Dutch word for Mint) in Pretoria. For all practical purposes, it could also have been added many years later as the first known document referring to it (the “M”) was the Farouk Sales Catalogue for the Cairo auction more than half a century after the coin was struck.
Source: South Cape Coins
Regarding the statement by the NGC that the coin was according to the sales catalogue purchased by King Farouk in Paris some years before the sale: We have studied the original catalogue but can find no reference to this assumption.
The only time the catalogue refers to the past purchasing of (any) coins offered, is in the Introduction where it says “Many of the coins come from famous collections. Much of the very complete series of the United States of America issues are from the famous W.H. Woodin, H.B. Earle and Col. Green collections, whilst the equally famous Ferrari collection was the source of many examples in the French section”.
(King Farouk was 2 years old when the Ferrari collection was sold in the early 1920s)
In any case, why would the catalogue specifically refer to the provenance of the single 9 if it was part of a lot (number 902) of 18 other coins?
In his recently published work The Anglo-Boer War 963 Days: Maps, Stats & Facts, Pieter G Cloete, on page 60 noted that the single 9 was presented “with pomp and ceremony” to Macrum in 1899 and that some of the double 9 coins were awarded to other diplomatic missions in the ZAR. The author made an enquiry to Cloete regarding his source or sources in this regard. He acknowledged receiving our first letter (e-mail), but we unfortunately did not hear from him again.
Becklake (1934), however, indeed says that he had been reliably informed that when the coins were overstruck, several well-known persons were present at the historic occasion to mark the wartime reopening of the mint for gold coinage.
If one looks at Mint Master Perrin’s statement that the single nine was the first coin struck on 2 November 1899 from 1898 dies, one will notice that the time and day refer to the striking of the coins themselves and not when the “9” was actually punched. When the single figure 9 was added and deemed to be insufficient, the punch for the double 9 was most probably not immediately available. So the ceremony for the punching of the rest of the coins with the double 9, probably occurred at a later date.
Who the well-known persons at the ceremony were we do not know, but the German Consulate General during the war, Max Biermann, was probably present as he knew the foreman of the Mint, Mr. A. Hermanus, personally.
Becklake (1934) provides information that Biermann in November 1901, authenticated the signature of Hermanus that was on a certificate relating to a double 9 pond belonging to a coin collector. Hermanus in his signed declaration states that “… it is one of those I as foreman struck personally on the order of the Mint Master.”
The chronological sales history of the coin is as follows: -
Source: Francois Malan
On the left is a signed letter by Day’s Postal Auctions authenticating the coin as belonging to Dr. Froelich (ex. Farouk) which was sold by them in 1969. The other two pictures are of the Phoenix catalogues that listed the coin in 1980 and 1983.
Source: Author’s personal library
South African news reports of the sale of the coin in 2001 and 2010
As a final observation: If one looks closely at the punched figure “9” on the single 9 pond, it is clear that it is double struck – not the same as the double 9 issue where the two figures are clearly apart - but one 9 punched virtually on top of the second punched 9. The reason for this is unknown.