Boer War Gold Tickey

[Cold Sea 6]

I stumbled upon this letter that is in the national archives while doing a search. It is an acknowledgement of receipt of 14 gold 3ds received by Emry Evans, Controller of the Treasury of the Transvaal in 1900, from English General John Maxwell. He in turn got them from Perrin, the late Master of the Mint.

 

My first thought was that it must be Sammy Marks tickeys. But if they were Sammy Marks tickeys, would he not have missed 14 x worth of gold tickeys, as he supplied the gold for the coins. I wonder if anybody knows whether any other gold 3ds were minted in Pretoria.

 

[Pierre_Henri 96]

Major General Maxwell was the commanding officer of the 14th Brigade (2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, 1st Battalion, Kings Own Borderers, and the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment)

 

I have this original signature from him - see the date (Pretoria 1 October 1900) is only 2 months or so before the receipt was made out for the gold 3d pieces.

 

 

But I cannot make out the exact wording on the receipt for the gold tickeys maybe you can post it here?

[Mike Klee 15]

I would think that they were actually Sammy Marks tickeys. It is not too hard to believe that Sammy Marks would have given the ZAR/Paul Kruger 14 x gold 3ds out of the "at least 215 minted" as a token of his appreciation for usage of the mint.

[Guest]

This is how I read it:

 

15/09/00

 

Dear General Maxwell

 

I have rec'd (abbreviated) from you 14 golden 3d. It was handed to you by Mr Perrin the late Master of the Mint.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Emrys Evans

 

C of T (Controller of the Treasury)

[Pierre_Henri 96]

If Jules Perrin as mint-master, handed the 14 gold 3d pieces to General Maxwell (Military Governor of Pretoria), these 14 coins could not have been part of the “official” gold stocks kept at the Mint in Pretoria. All the gold was shipped off by train to Machadodorp, a day or so before the British entered Pretoria in early June 1900.

 

The Sammy Marks 3d pieces were not official coins so if the Mint had a few, they could have stored them separately. The Mint could have received them from Sammy Marks himself as a thank you gift for using their facilities in 1898 on Kruger’s Birthday when 215 pieces were struck (or maybe a few extras were struck as test pieces and kept by the Mint?)

 

Although there are ZAR coin pieces struck in gold like a half-crown dated 1892, two 3-pences dated 1894 and a sixpence dated 1897, I still think that the 14 gold 3d pieces were indeed Sammy Marks Tickeys and not dated prior to 1898.

 

General Maxwell then handed the 14 gold pieces back to the state (who was probably the rightful owners) and received a receipt for it from Emrys Evans who was the Controller of the Transvaal Treasury from August 1900 to April 1901, from which date he officiated as Auditor General.

 

(Emrys and Gen. Maxwell worked closely together, sat in the same government building and were advisers to Lord Roberts during the Pretoria campaign).

 

A very curious & interesting fact is that General Maxwell’s wife, Louise Selina Maxwell, was a close friend of Sammy Marks, and often spent weekends at Zwartkoppies Hall, Marks’s residence in Pretoria.

 

But let’s not start any conspiracy theories!

[Mike Klee 15]

Pierre, your knowledge of numismatic history is absolutely wonderful. It is always a delight to read your input in this forum.