ZAR Coinage · The Last Stand

The 1902 Veldpond.

The last coin of the Boer Republic. Struck in the field at Pilgrim's Rest in the eastern Transvaal during the closing months of the Anglo-Boer War — by a former schoolteacher, with hand-engraved dies, on a press operated by two men of human muscle. 986 minted. Production ended fifteen days after the truce was signed.

1902 · 986 minted · Pilgrim's Rest, Transvaal

Reference photographs

1902 Veldpond obverse — Berlin Münzkabinett reference

Obverse · ZAR Monogram

Reverse · Een Pond

1902 Veldpond

— Berlin Münzkabinett collection —

Gold:~.999 fine Mint:Pilgrim's Rest Die-sinker:P.J. Kloppers

Mintage

986 pieces

Location

Pilgrim's Rest

Die-sinker

P. J. Kloppers

Authority

Acting Pres. Burger

Survival

~350 – 400

The story

Three Acts · The Retreat, The Schoolteacher, The Truce

Act I

The retreat

By early 1902, the Anglo-Boer War had reached its final phase. Paul Kruger had left South Africa on 19 October 1900, never to return. The Pretoria Mint had been captured by British forces. Schalk Burger now served as acting president of a Republic that no longer held its capital, with Boer commando forces operating from increasingly remote positions in the eastern Transvaal.

It was General Christian Muller, the assistant-commandant-general, who recommended the issue. Burger authorised it. An emergency mint was established at Pilgrim's Rest — a gold-mining settlement in the eastern Transvaal, in what is now Mpumalanga — using the dormant workshops of the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates. The name Veldpond comes from the Afrikaans word for field: the grassy plain on which the operation took place.

Act II

The schoolteacher

The acting mint master was P. J. Kloppers — formerly the head teacher at the De Kaap Government School. He had no professional experience as a die-sinker. He cut the dies anyway. Six pairs failed during the tempering process — plunging the hot dies into oil or water — before the seventh held. From that single surviving die-pair, every Veldpond was struck.

Kloppers chose a design suited to the resources of a field workshop and the spirit of the moment: a defiant "ZAR" monogram with the date on the obverse, the denomination "EEN POND" on the reverse. Hand-engraved lettering. No portrait, no coat of arms, no allegory. One of the simplest yet most distinctive coin types of the entire twentieth century.

Act III

The fifteen days

Production continued for approximately three months. The press required two men of human muscle to operate; the gold proved brittle until Kloppers discovered a metallurgical workaround (see the editorial pullquote below). Approximately 986 pieces were struck — a number derived from the surviving production records.

The Treaty of Vereeniging was signed on 31 May 1902, ending the Anglo-Boer War. Production at Pilgrim's Rest continued for fifteen more days. The last Veldponde were struck after the Republic that authorised them had ceased to exist. The last coin of the Boer Republic was minted, in part, after the Republic was already gone.

— A field metallurgy —

Pure 24-karat gold was melted and cast into blanks, shaped into coin form on a manually operated lathe. The gold was nearly pure but proved brittle. Kloppers — the schoolteacher — discovered he could use antiseptic tablets (sublimate of mercury) found in an ambulance to render the gold malleable.

— On the minting of the Veldpond, 1902

The minting

The Gold · The Dies · The Press

The gold

Sourced from the local mines of the eastern Transvaal — nearly pure 24-carat gold, melted and cast into blanks, then shaped into coin form on a manually operated lathe. The metal was too pure to strike cleanly. Kloppers solved the problem with mercury tablets found in an ambulance — a piece of improvised metallurgy that any modern metallurgist would recognise as sound, if astonishing, practice.

ii.

The dies

Cut by hand by a former schoolteacher with no die-sinking experience. Six pairs broke during tempering — the rapid quench in oil or water that hardens steel dies. The seventh pair held. Every one of the 986 Veldponde was struck from that single die-pair. One die-pair, no margin, no second chance.

iii.

The press

A handmade collar produced the milled edge — so that the Veldpond would carry the same authority of finish as the British sovereign it was meant to supplant. The press itself required two men, working together, to apply the strike. Three months of production. Roughly ten coins per day. Human muscle as the final mechanism of a republic's last currency.

The slash variety

A Cracked Die, Recorded

A documented variety

One die. One slash. The most collectable Veldpond.

At some point during the three months of production, the obverse die became notched — a small but visible flaw that left a diagonal "slash" in the upper-left field of the coins struck after the damage occurred. The damage was not repaired. Kloppers had no spare die. The slash was struck for the remainder of the production run.

For modern collectors, the slash variety is the most desirable form of an already extraordinary coin. It places the example unambiguously in the second half of the production run — the period after the die had aged, when the Republic itself had little time left. Slash-variety Veldponde realise material premiums above non-slash examples in equivalent grade.

The off-centre strikes, irregular thickness, and varying weight (7.0 – 8.5 g, against a 7.7 g target) on many surviving examples are not die varieties — they are the visible marks of a primitive press operated under field conditions. They are not faults. They are the coin's signature.

Technical reference

Specifications & Catalogue

Denomination1 Pond (implied)
Year1902
MintField mint, Pilgrim's Rest
Die-sinkerP. J. Kloppers
Mintage986
Estimated survival350 – 400
Composition~.999 Gold (variable)
Weight7.0 – 8.5 g (typically 7.6 – 7.9 g)
Diameter21 – 23 mm (typical 22.8 mm)
EdgeReeded (handmade collar)
Die alignmentMedal · ↑↑
CatalogueKM #11 · Hern Z54 · Fr-4

The obverse

Hand-engraved "ZAR" monogram — Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek — above the date "1902". Simple lettering, no portrait, no allegory. The monogram itself is small, defiant, and functions as both signature and shield.

The reverse

"EEN POND" — One Pound — in two lines. Crude lettering consistent with field conditions. No ornament, no border legend. The reverse is the only place the denomination appears on the coin.

Survival & authentication

Read This Before You Buy One

The survival

986 struck · roughly 350 – 400 today

Total survival Estimated 350 – 400 specimens from the original mintage of 986. Many were lost, melted, or damaged in the post-war years.
Common condition issues Mounting damage (ex-jewellery), plugging (filled holes), and cleaning. Problem-free examples are extremely rare.
Institutional holdings The Smithsonian Institution holds a specimen — NU.68.159.5817 — from the Josiah K. Lilly estate.

The counterfeit risk

Why the Veldpond is targeted

The crudeness helps the forger The hand-engraved dies and irregular strike of the genuine coin are difficult to distinguish from a deliberately-aged forgery without expert examination.
Certification is essential Third-party grading by NGC or PCGS is the only reliable authentication path. Uncertified Veldponde at attractive prices should be treated with extreme caution.
Diagnostics worth knowing Genuine examples have medal alignment (↑↑), exhibit consistent gold colour and density, and show production-era surface marks. Most modern fakes are too clean.

Auction landmarks

Twenty Years of Realisations

The Veldpond has shown steady, strong appreciation across two decades — from £14,500 at Noonans in 2005 to over $45,000 at Heritage in 2023 for the right MS65 example. The slash variety commands clear premiums; problem-free Mint State examples are encountered only once every few years.

Date	House	Grade	Realised
Aug 2025	Heritage 3125	NGC MS65	$30,000
Jan 2025	Heritage 3121	NGC MS65 · slash variety	$33,600
Jan 2025	Heritage 3121	NGC MS62	$15,600
Aug 2024	Heritage 3118	NGC MS65	$33,600
Aug 2024	St. James's	—	£38,000 · $49,400
Jan 2023	Heritage 3105	NGC MS65	$45,600
Jan 2023	SBP / Shouxi	NGC MS63	$15,600
2023	Schulman	—	€28,000 · $30,800
2022	Noonans	—	£27,000 · $35,100
Aug 2020	Heritage 3085	NGC MS61	$28,800
Aug 2020	Heritage 3085	UNC Details (Mount Removed)	$7,500
Nov 2020	Heritage 3088	NGC MS64	$33,600
2015	Heritage	NGC MS63	$39,950
Jun 2014	Dix Noonan Webb	EF	£8,400 · $14,099
2011	Noonans	NGC MS64	£31,000 · $50,000+
2010	Heritage	NGC MS64	$33,600
2005	Noonans	—	£14,500

London Coins archive results: GVF at £8,500 (Auction 152) · NEF ex-mount at £1,900 (Auction 150) · VF at £7,000 (Auction 147) · Good EF at £6,000 (Auction 144).

Further research

The Gold Behind the Coins

A dedicated research piece

The gold behind the coins

For a deeper investigation into the gold sources used for the Veldpond and the 1892 Berlin-struck ZAR coinage — including the Witbank coalfield connection, the Pilgrim's Rest mines, and the metallurgy of wartime gold — see the dedicated research page on the sources of South African gold and the birth of the Veldpond.

Open the research

The references

Standard Sources

Coin World"Veld Pond from Anglo-Boer War a major South African rarity" — February 2015 reference article.
Heritage AuctionsNYINC Signature Sales 3105 (2023), 3118 (2024), 3121 (2025), 3125 (2025).
Stack's Bowers / Shouxi"Second Boer War Veld Pond, 1902" — January 2023 sale.
Smithsonian Institution"1 Veld Pond, South African Republic, 1902" — accession NU.68.159.5817, ex-Lilly estate.
Numista & ColnectReference catalogues — "1 Pond Veld Pond" / "1 Pound (Veld Pond)."
London Coins archiveRealised prices, Auctions 144, 147, 150, 152.
Noonans MayfairAuction archive — Lot 467 (June 2011); various lots 2005, 2014, 2022.
Schulman B.V. & St. James'sEuropean auction records, 2023 – 2024.
Berlin MünzkabinettReference photography (museum-digital).

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