| 12. MINT ACTIVITIES ENDED | ||||||
| The activities of the State Mint on the Field came to
a standstill when peace was declared. The Boer Government and the State
Mint on the Field ended together on 31 May 1902. This is confirmed
by Reid80 as well as Cooney81 . Again Kloppers’ account differs
from the other team members when he says that activities continued
until
7 or 8 June.
The burghers stayed on at Pilgrim’s Rest up to that date in June, waiting for General Muller to arrive from Vereeniging for laying down arms at Potloodspruit. That could be the reason why he is absent on the photo of the team that was taken by Marshall. |
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| 13 VELDPOND WITH A BLANK SIDE | ||||||
| On 1 June 1902 a second award was made. It was a Veldpond with a blank reverse side on which the receiver could have his own name engraved as a reminder of the work done at Pilgrim’s Rest. These blank Veldpond have smooth edges without flutes. Presumably each of the nine people involved got a blank Veldpond. Marshall got two of these Veldpond with the blank reverse side.82 | ||||||
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“Presented to Alexander
Marshall for auld langsyne by AC Pinnar (sic) vc” 83 |
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Presented to Alexander Marshall
by General Vilgeon |
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| 14 HOW MANY VELDPOND WERE MINTED? | ||||||
| According to Kloppers 986 gold pounds were made84 but
nowhere does he mention whether a register was kept. The first mine official who visited the mine after the war, mentioned in his report that Veldpond were coined in the mine’s workshop.85 He talks about a few hundred 1902 sovereigns. It was therefore not a commonly known amount. Cooney mentions in a letter to his niece that 530 coins were made: When peace was proclaimed between the British and the Boer (papa will explain to you) we had only fairly started to make the crude coins of which enclosed is one, and all we made when the British supplanted the Boers in the Transvaal by treaty was 530 Coins. 86 Reid says in his war memoirs that 400-500 pound were distributed amongst the Boers87 and that the rest was handed over to the government. According to Kloppers, General Lukas Meyer took 80 coins with him when he left for Vereeniging for the peace talks.88 That would bring the total number of Veldpond to below 600. In an autographed signed letter addressed to Dr A Kaplan, General CH Muller states that 525 Veldpond were produced.89 Barter wrote in a letter, dated 6 September 1932 to John Hunter McLea, that gold valued at more than £500 pound was used.90 If one calculates that 530 coins with a value of 22 shillings each, gold to the value of £583 pound had been used. This is in accordance with the £500 pounds of gold that Viljoen had in his possession plus the extra that Muller had had scraped. It seems therefore that more or less 600 Veldpond were made at Pilgrim’s Rest. |
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