Options
Spink confirm South Africa's biggest numismatic hoax
tokencoin
Posts: 7 ✭
For many years now I have suspected that the common assumption that the Griqua Town coins were circulated in a town of the same name in 1815/16 was a hoax. The facts as I knew them just did not add up. This is an important issue as these coins were, as a result of this commonly accepted claim, South Africa's first indigenous currency and as a result the few coins that do exist can return thousands of dollars at auction.
For over 30 years I have been studying the Griquas and numismatics (my hobby) side by side. Much of my findings are available online at tokencoins.com
About 18 months ago I went public with my findings which were backed up by contemporary books, documents and simple common sense.
A key factor in these findings is the fact that all references to the Griqua Town coins being used as currency can be tracked back to a single paper published by H A Parson for Spink in 1927. The name Spink added credibility to what is, in essence, a very poorly researched paper.
As recently as May 2005 the President of the Transvaal Numismatic Society was carrying the Parson's banner in a talk he gave to his members during which the Griqua Town coins were presented as S Africa's first indigenous currency.
The SA Mint web site still refers to the Griqua Town coins as S A's first indigenous currency despite the fact that I have presented unequivocal evidence that the coins never even reached South African shores - and that the coins were most likely not minted before 1870. Despite the documented facts laid before them they will retain this fallacy until the directors decide otherwise.
While I have been banging my head against the proverbial wall for the last 12 months trying to get the bureaucrats to consider common sense my efforts have been largely futile.
That was until today when I received a belated email from Spink's Jeremy Cheek copied to all the company's numismatic staff which confirmed that my findings were true and that Parson's paper was flawed.
The admission by Spink follows the publication of over 30 summarised key points displayed at this link.
Two key unequivocal facts detailed at the link above put the last nails in the 1815/16 Griqua Town coin coffin...
1) J S Marais, the Professor of History at the University of Wit watersrand, in his 1934 book about the Cape Coloureds states that Griquatown was a "ghost town" at the very time the coins were supposed to be circulating, and
2) in 1812 William Burchell drew a picture of Griqua Town when Adam Kok and his followers still lived there (ie before they left in 1814). There are just 24 native huts... hardly a village let alone a town or community in which a currency could be circulated!
The resulting rewriting of South Africa's numismatic history now throws a trade token issued by Strachan and Co into the hallowed seat as the country's first truley indigenous currency... ironically again used by the Griquas but this time in East Griqualand some sixty years later.
Scott Balson
For over 30 years I have been studying the Griquas and numismatics (my hobby) side by side. Much of my findings are available online at tokencoins.com
About 18 months ago I went public with my findings which were backed up by contemporary books, documents and simple common sense.
A key factor in these findings is the fact that all references to the Griqua Town coins being used as currency can be tracked back to a single paper published by H A Parson for Spink in 1927. The name Spink added credibility to what is, in essence, a very poorly researched paper.
As recently as May 2005 the President of the Transvaal Numismatic Society was carrying the Parson's banner in a talk he gave to his members during which the Griqua Town coins were presented as S Africa's first indigenous currency.
The SA Mint web site still refers to the Griqua Town coins as S A's first indigenous currency despite the fact that I have presented unequivocal evidence that the coins never even reached South African shores - and that the coins were most likely not minted before 1870. Despite the documented facts laid before them they will retain this fallacy until the directors decide otherwise.
While I have been banging my head against the proverbial wall for the last 12 months trying to get the bureaucrats to consider common sense my efforts have been largely futile.
That was until today when I received a belated email from Spink's Jeremy Cheek copied to all the company's numismatic staff which confirmed that my findings were true and that Parson's paper was flawed.
The admission by Spink follows the publication of over 30 summarised key points displayed at this link.
Two key unequivocal facts detailed at the link above put the last nails in the 1815/16 Griqua Town coin coffin...
1) J S Marais, the Professor of History at the University of Wit watersrand, in his 1934 book about the Cape Coloureds states that Griquatown was a "ghost town" at the very time the coins were supposed to be circulating, and
2) in 1812 William Burchell drew a picture of Griqua Town when Adam Kok and his followers still lived there (ie before they left in 1814). There are just 24 native huts... hardly a village let alone a town or community in which a currency could be circulated!
The resulting rewriting of South Africa's numismatic history now throws a trade token issued by Strachan and Co into the hallowed seat as the country's first truley indigenous currency... ironically again used by the Griquas but this time in East Griqualand some sixty years later.
Scott Balson
Research creates interest, interest creates value.
1
Comments
That was until today when I received a belated email from Spink's Jeremy Cheek copied to all the company's numismatic staff which confirmed that my findings were true and that Parson's paper was flawed.
And we were wondering what happened to you after you posted that excellent thread about the forgotten South African currency. Congratulations, and welcome back to the forum tokencoin. And BTW, I think I have met Jeremy in person, but that was a few years ago.
myEbay
DPOTD 3
IMO every one of your posts here is DPOTD material.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
Great fortitude and research for making this happen! Since SA coins are a mainstay of my collection, I sincerly appreciate the efforts and research that you have done on this!!!
Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!!
'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
eBay Store
DPOTD Jan 2005, Meet the Darksiders
I am travelling back to South Africa in September next year in an attempt to once again "unearth buried treasure".
In the late 1970s I was fortunate enough to literally dig up an old field toilet and uncover nearly 1,000 extremely rare trade tokens...
Story at this link
Next year I will be spending three weeks in a hired car travelling from Johannesburg to Pretoria then to the historic town of Pilgrim's Rest so that I can soak up the environment in which the famous Veld Pond was struck... from there I travel south to the boer war battle fields around Ladysmith and Colenso.. I will then visit the Drakensberg before travelling through Estcourt and Pietermaritzburg on my way to Durban. From there I travel down the South coast and then inland to Ixopo where I will be attempting to track down a very large cache of very rare 100 year old trade tokens (not Strachan and Co) that I have heard are buried under the floorboards of an old building. Then I go south to Port Elizabeth and the Garden Route where I will spend some time with the le Fleur family (the leaders of the remaining Griqua families) before going to Cape Town. My final leg takes me through the Karoo on my way to the historic settlements of Griqua Town and Campbelltown before travelling north to Mafeking and then East to Krugersdorp before returning to Australia.
A historic trip and one that is long overdue... I left South Africa in 1986.
Kind regards
Scott Balson
-John
PM with info.
Auction Sniper For all your sniping needs. Tell them I sent you and I'll get three free snipes!
e-bay ID= 29john29
My only suggestion would be to provide a warning that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony would blast away!
I jumped nearly 3 feet in the air when it started...