The Veldpond

The Veldpond was first struck by the "boers" in 1902. Amid the grasslands of Pilgrim’s Rest they set up their improvised mint and proceeded to imprint a golden coin a bit larger than the size of a sovereign, also known as the “Pilgrim’s Rest Coin”. The meager quality of the letters on the coin is a result of the single set of hand carved dies that were used. Roughly 982 golden coins, the value of 22 shillings, were pressed with a makeshift flypress.

Z.A.R. (Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek) was printed on the one side 1902 beneath. The other side had the words “Een Pond”, meaning “one pound”. General Ben Viljoen set up his command center at Pilgrim’s Rest, a small mining village located about 25 miles north east of Lydenburg, South Africa.

Mr. Kloppers (who was in charge of the mint) did not like the idea of manufacturing the Veldpond by hammering (the process by which most coined money had been made from the dawn of minting art up to comparatively modern times), thus Mr. Klopper modified an old paper press to mint the coins. The South African Veldpond is truly an amazing coin, full of history and a true artifact of the Afrikaner nation.

The Veldpond is one of South Africa's most valuable coins, and in recent years it shot up in popularity from the international numismatic community. Today the Veldpond sells for more than US$20, 000 in AU grade. The highest graded veldpond recently sold for $90 000 on HA.com

Veldpond are sometimes listed on South Africa's largest online auction site: