From the Curatorial Desk · The Medals Library
Medals & tokens.
Awards, decorations, postal orders, revenue stamps, communion tokens, scripophily — the metallic and paper artefacts of South African civic, military, and commercial life. Three v3 reference pages anchor the section — the canonical military medals timeline, the comprehensive fiscal-items reference, and the new Presidential Awards work surfacing the ad hoc Republican honours of 1874 and 1876.
Curated by Ben & Johan Ungerer · The Jardines Curatorial Desk
The two reference timelines
Canonical Library PagesSouth African military medals
From Queen Victoria's South Africa Medal (1854 · Eastern Frontier) through the colonial & Dominion era, the two World Wars, the 1952 establishment of South Africa's own independent honours system, the 1975 revision, the TBVC states & liberation armies, and the 2003 series anchored by the Nkwe ya Gauta. Includes the new ZAR Republican precursors subsection covering the 1874 and 1876 Crosses.
Eight key reference works listed. Honoris Crux rarity ladder. Order of wear table. Comprehensive coverage of 172 years.
Open the reference → — Beyond the medal —Postal orders & fiscal items
The paperwork at the edges of money. Postal orders — the 1897 SA Postal Union Convention, the 1910 first issues, the 1933 SA-own orders, the 1961 decimal overprints. Revenue stamps from the pre-Union states (Cape, Natal, OFS, ZAR, plus the New Republic £15 — only three printed, one survives) through the national issues 1913 — 2009.
Specialised revenues, Bantustan issues, foreign overprints, cheque-paper legal history, and scripophily — the complete fiscal-items reference.
Open the reference →Presidential Awards
New Research · Republican Honours TraditionRecent v3 builds · The Republican honours tradition
The Crosses that predate the system.
Before the ZAR had any official honours system, two Presidential Crosses emerged from the personal authority of President Thomas Burgers. The earlier of the two — the Gold Burgers' Cross of 1874 — is recognised by recent research (Western Cape Numismatic Society, Nortje) as South Africa's first Presidential Award. The 1876 Transvaal Cross of Honour followed two years later under similar ad hoc precedent. Together they establish a republican honours tradition that predates the official 1952 SA military system by nearly eighty years.
The Gold Burgers' Cross
Three recipients: two civilian nurses who saw the Pilgrim's Rest gold-fields through a fever epidemic, and Catharina van Rees of the Netherlands — composer of the ZAR national anthem. Instituted by Burgers without Volksraad consultation, the same year as the Burgerspond.
Transvaal Cross of Honour
The companion award — arguably the first ZAR military award proper. Same President, same ad hoc presidential authority. Built on the precedent the Burgers' Cross had established two years earlier.
Tokens from the margins
Canonical Entries · Currency Without a State MintGriqua tokens
Among the earliest locally-struck currency on South African soil — the Griqua tokens issued at Klaarwater (Griquatown) for the missionary community under the London Missionary Society. Predates the Burgerspond by nearly six decades, and predates official South African coinage by almost a century.
The reference page on the original Griqua issues — design, mintage context, and survival.
Open the reference → — Anglo-Boer War · 1900 – 1902 —Concentration camp tokens
The token currencies issued in British concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War — the second chapter of the war's emergency numismatics, alongside the better-known siege notes. Material from camps across the Republics, where British administrators issued internal scrip to control commerce within the wire.
Companion reference to the Siege Notes page in the Banknotes hub — both halves of the war's emergency-currency record.
Open the reference →Also adjacent
Related Material Elsewhere in the LibrarySiege notes
Emergency currency issued during the sieges of Mafeking, Kimberley, and Ladysmith — the most tangible relics of the 1899 – 1902 conflict. Lives in the Banknotes hub but adjacent to medals & tokens in spirit.
— Krugerrand Series · The Journal —Krugerrand security
The world's first modern gold bullion coin, treated as legal tender under SARBA 1989. Edge serrations, alloy, mintmarks, the 2024 Oom Paul Press final strikes. Adjacent because of its medal-like commemorative privy marks.
— Research Journal —The Journal
Specialist research articles, mint history, and people-behind-the-coins biographies. The home of the deeper essay-length work that supports the reference pages in this section.
Forthcoming research
The WCNS Catalog RoadmapThe Western Cape Numismatic Society's article archive identifies a substantial body of South African medals-and-tokens research that has not yet been catalogued in this section. The Library's intent is to bring each of the following into the Medals & Tokens section as standalone v3 reference pages. Priority is editorial — built where existing pages already cross-reference unbuilt material, or where the WCNS work is most thoroughly documented.
- Concentration Camp Tokens. Already cross-referenced from the Siege Notes page.
- Méreau Communion Tokens. Huguenot Museum holdings.
- Tram & Bus Tokens of Cape Town. Civic transport tokens.
- Victorian-era Brothel Tokens. Cape Colony social history.
- The Cape of Good Hope Humane Society Medal of 1842. Civilian gallantry.
- Burgerunie ZAR Medal. An unusual republican civic medal.
- Rail Transport Coins, Tokens & Medallions. SAR&H material.
- 1970s & 1980s SA Medallion Sets. Commemorative private issues.
- The Doit of the VOC. Pre-1652 colonial precursor.
- Fibre Teaching Coins of the Union. Depression-era classroom currency.
Reference works
Sources for the Section- Alexander, E.G.M., Barron, G.K.B. & Bateman, A.J.South African Orders, Decorations and Medals. Human and Rousseau, 1986.
- Fforde, J.P.I. & Monick, S.A Guide to South African Orders, Decorations and Medals and their Ribbons 1896 — 1985. 1986.
- Monick, S.South African Military Awards 1912 — 1987. 1988.
- Roos, P.F.Honoris Crux: The Evolution of South Africa's Cross of Honour. New Voices Publishing, Cape Town, 2023.
- Hern, Brian.The Standard Catalogue of South African Coins, Medals and Tokens. Annual publication — the standard cross-disciplinary catalogue.
- Barefoot, John.British Commonwealth Revenues (9th ed., 2012). The essential revenue-stamp catalogue.
- Western Cape Numismatic Society.Pierre H. Nortje's article archive — including the Burgers' Cross 1874 monograph (South Africa's First Presidential Award), Postal Order research, and the Marshall Hole emergency-fiscal cards reference.
- South African Military History Society."Positive and Negative: The Awards of the First South African War of Independence, 1880 – 1881" — context for republican-era awards.