1892 – 1902 · Three Chapters · The Heart of SA Numismatics
The ZAR coinage.
The ZAR coinage — eight years of regular issue, three years of wartime gold, and the most prestigious rarities in South African numismatics. The arc of ZAR coinage runs from the 1891 Berlin contract through the corrected Pretoria regular issue of 1893–1900 to the emergency wartime gold of 1899 and the closing Veldpond of 1902. Every page below sits inside that arc — from the famous “O.S.” Double Shaft errors of the Berlin ZAR coinage through the unique 1898 Single 9 Pond that holds the highest auction record ever achieved by a South African coin.
The Single 9 1898 Pond
The greatest individual rarity in South African numismatics. A single oversized “9” punched over the “8” of an existing 1898 die. Six owners across 71 years.
R 40.10 million realised · January 2025
Read the featured article →The Three Chapters of ZAR Coinage
Berlin · Pretoria · WartimeThe ZAR coinage divides cleanly into three production eras, each with its own political weight and its own legendary pieces. Read them in order: Berlin established the design and produced the famous errors; Pretoria issued the corrected regular coinage that fills most collections; Wartime closes the arc with the emergency gold that produced the field’s greatest rarities. Three chapters — one arc.
I
Berlin · 1891–1892
President Kruger’s strategic choice to bypass the Royal Mint in London and have the Republic’s first coinage struck on the dies of one of Britain’s continental rivals. Engraver Otto Schultz cut every denomination — gold Pond and Half Pond, silver Crown through Threepence, bronze Penny. The first strikes carried the double-shaft wagon error and Schultz’s “O.S.” initials — a political embarrassment that nearly cost Kruger the 1893 election.
Read the Berlin Mint Connection →II
Pretoria · 1893–1900
The first mint established on South African soil and one of the strongest symbolic statements of ZAR sovereignty. Eight years of corrected single-shaft gold and silver — two gold denominations, five silver, one bronze — struck on the Oom Paul press, the Loewe machine that would go on to serve for 132 years. The 1898 Sammy Marks Tickey, the Menné Half Pond, and the regular Pond runs all belong to this chapter.
Read the Pretoria Mint story →III
Wartime · 1899–1902
The closing chapter. With the Anglo-Boer War cutting Pretoria off from Berlin’s die supplier, the mint improvised — punching oversized “9”s onto existing 1898 dies. One coin escaped before the design was abandoned: the unique Single 9. The smaller Double 99 punch followed. The arc closed with the 1902 Veldpond — hand-struck in the field by retreating Boers at Pilgrim’s Rest, dies cut by school teacher P.J. Kloppers.
Read the Veldpond →The denominations
Gold · Silver · Bronze · Full IndexNine denominations across three metals. Each linked page is a dedicated reference with mintages, varieties, auction records, and grading notes. The gold denominations are the headline collecting targets; the silver series carries the bulk of the year-by-year date collecting; the bronze Penny is the most overlooked entry into ZAR coinage collecting.
Group I · Gold
Double Shaft Pond
The Berlin error — saved by collectors at the time, many high-grade examples survive.
Single Shaft Pond
The corrected design — heavier circulation, fewer high-grade survivors than the double shaft.
Pretoria Gold Ponds
The single-shaft regular issue. 1893–1900 — the eight-year Pretoria run.
Double Shaft Half Pond
The half-denomination Berlin error — collected as a companion to the full Pond.
Pretoria Half Ponds
Scarcer and more selective than many collectors assume. Major key date: 1893.
The Menné Half Pond
The mystery. One unique coin — a 1892 Half Pond with the corrected single-shaft design.
Group II · Silver
Double Shaft Crown
The crown-sized Berlin error. One-year type — only crown the ZAR ever issued.
1892 Silver
Six silver denominations from the Berlin contract — full series in context.
Pretoria Silver
The corrected regular issue. The 1893 Florin in PCGS MS64 reached R650,000.
The 1892 Proof Set
Nine coins as presentation pieces — the Hohmann Collection example anchors the field.
Group III · Bronze
1892 Penny
The bronze entry to the Berlin contract. Covered alongside the 1892 silver denominations.
Pretoria Pennies
The workhorse base-metal coin of the ZAR. The most accessible date-run entry into the series.
Notable issues
Headline Pieces · Special Strikes · Wartime GoldSix pieces stand apart from the regular denominational structure — either as deliberate special issues (Sammy Marks Tickey, 1892 Proof Set) or as wartime emergency gold (Single 9, Double 99, Veldpond), plus the unique Menné Half Pond. Together they account for most of the field’s prestige and almost all of its auction records.
The Single 9 Pond
One known · R 40.10m · Heritage 2025The unique 1898 Pond with an oversized “9” punched over the “8”. Six owners across 71 years. The greatest individual rarity in South African numismatics — and the coin that holds the field’s highest auction record.
The Double 99 Pond
Smaller punch run · Obtainable counterpartAfter the oversized single digit was abandoned, a smaller “99” punch was used for the remaining wartime pieces. The destination coin for serious ZAR collectors — what most will realistically pursue.
The Sammy Marks Tickey
Mintage 215 · R-rareStruck as a presentation piece at Sammy Marks’s request — only 215 ever minted. A 3-pence gold coin distributed among Kruger’s circle and a handful of dignitaries. One of the rarest South African pieces by mintage.
The Veldpond
Mintage 986 · Survivors ~350–400Emergency gold pounds struck at Pilgrim’s Rest by retreating Boer forces. Dies cut by school teacher P.J. Kloppers. The last coin of the Boer Republic — and the symbolic close to the entire ZAR coinage programme.
The 1892 Proof Set
~10 sets known · R 1.6–2.5m est.Nine coins from the Berlin contract in Brilliant Proof: penny through pond. The Hohmann Collection example anchors the field. The three double-shaft errors appear here in their original Berlin presentation state.
The Menné Half Pond
One known · Singular ZAR mysteryA unique 1892 Half Pond bearing the corrected single-shaft design — despite no other 1892 single-shaft Half Pond ever being recorded. The story of W.J.C. Menné and the coin inherited from his father’s collection.
Auction landmarks
Recent Realisations · Series HeadlinesSelected recent results across the ZAR series — ordered by date, with the major modern benchmark first. The full record for each coin lives on its individual page.
| Coin | Realised | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1898 Single 9 Pond | R 40.10 million | Heritage NYINC, January 2025 · The unique specimen · SA record |
| 1892 Double Shaft Crown | $15,600 | Heritage Cape Coral Collection, 2022 · PR64 PCGS |
| 1893 Florin | R 650,000 | PCGS MS64 · Pretoria silver headline result |
| 1892 Double Shaft Pond | Multi-thousand $ | Active market · see dedicated page for recent results |
| 1902 Veldpond | $33,600 | Heritage 2025 · NGC MS65 · ~350–400 known |
| 1898 Sammy Marks Tickey | Per page | Mintage 215 · R-rare · rarely surfaces publicly |
The mints
Berlin · Pretoria · Oom Paul PressTwo mints struck ZAR coinage and one machine connected them across the entire arc. The Royal Prussian Mint in Berlin handled the 1892 contract and produced all the famous errors; the Pretoria Mint took over from 1893 and ran until British occupation in 1900; and the Oom Paul press, manufactured in Berlin in 1891, served continuously for 132 years until its 2024 retirement.
The Berlin Mint Connection
How Prussian precision shaped South Africa’s first coinage — Otto Schultz’s engraved dies, his original wax models preserved at the Berlin Münzkabinett, the “O.S.” controversy, and the corrected dies that followed.
The Pretoria Mint
South Africa’s first mint on home soil. The corrected single-shaft circulation gold, the Sammy Marks Tickey, the Menné Half Pond, and the closing wartime improvisation that produced the Single 9 and Double 99.
The Oom Paul Press
The Berlin-built press that struck the first ZAR coins in 1892, the Union coinage from 1923, the first Krugerrand in 1967, and continued in service until its 2024 retirement. 132 years of continuous use across four political eras.
The gold behind the coins
Where did the metal come from? An investigation into the origins of the gold used for the first ZAR coins struck in Berlin in 1892, and the emergency minting of the 1902 Veldpond at Pilgrim’s Rest. Includes profiles of Otto Schultz and P.J. Kloppers.
Collecting & research
How to Build · How to Grade · The People · The ErrorsFour routes into deeper material. The collecting guides handle the practical questions — how to build a ZAR date set, how to grade the coins, what to watch for — while the research pages cover the biographical and error-coin context that frames every individual piece.
How to Build a ZAR Date Set
The structured route into the most classic South African collecting area — year by year, by denomination.
Grading ZAR Coins
Practical grading guidance — wear, surfaces, originality, common pitfalls. Required reading before any major purchase.
Error Coin Encyclopedia
The OS controversy in detail — alongside every other major SA error coin. The encyclopedic treatment.
People behind the coins
Biographical reference. Otto Schultz, Sammy Marks, P.J. Kloppers, Paul Kruger — the figures who shaped the coinage.
Sources & references
Standard Works · Auction Archives · Institutional Collections- Brian Hern. The Standard Catalogue of South African Coins, Medals and Tokens (annual edition) — the field’s working reference.
- Elias Levine. The Coinage and Counterfeits of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (1974) — the specialist study.
- J. T. Becklake. Mintage research on ZAR coinage (1965) — the foundational mintage attribution work.
- Pierre H. Nortje (Western Cape Numismatic Society). “The ZAR Coinage of 1892,” December 2023 · “The Mystery of the 1892 ZAR Single Shaft Half Pond,” May 2024.
- Berlin Münzkabinett. museum-digital · Südafrika 1892 records · ikmk.smb.museum.
- Heritage Auctions. Archive search · South African material · January 2025 NYINC catalogues.
- Spink. Auction 23006 · Dr Frank Becker Collection, 28 September 2023.
- Stephan Welz & Co. 1892 Proof Set (Hohmann Collection) · Sandton sale records.