Under the distinguished patronage of Alderman Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of the City of Cape Town
Western Cape Numismatic Society Announcements
The 2026 Annual General Meeting was held on 21 February 2026. The event was fully booked, with a few surprises. See the meeting summary and photos here.
Membership
Membership of the society is open to all, and enquiries can be made through our Contact Us channel.
Collectors corner:
Collecting Ancient Coins - Ancient coins hold a special place in numismatics. Minted thousands of years ago, these coins are highly prized by collectors worldwide today for their historical importance and beauty. A large supply makes many ancients surprisingly affordable today.
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Seven Short Questions to a Fellow Collector:
We sent seven questions to the newly elected WCNS Vice President, Gary Willicott, and asked him to share his numismatic interests, knowledge, and tips. Below are Gary's answers:
Question 1: Tell us about yourself.
My name is Gary Willicott, I’m from the United Kingdom originally. I moved to South Africa in 2006, where I met my wife, who is Afrikaans. Married in 2007, we now have 3 kids, a daughter that we adopted (22) and 2 boys (14 and 16). We stay in Cape Town. I am currently serving as the acting Vice-President of the Western Cape Numismatic Society.
Question 2: How and when did you become interested in collecting?
Around 4 years ago, we inherited a jar of second decimal 1 cent coins. At that stage, I knew nothing about old coins or their values. I jumped on Google and found out about the 1965 Afrikaans 1 cent and its potential value. After hunting through that jar and thinking I had found it several times, only to realise I had mistaken worn 196(6) for a 196(5), the treasure hunt was on!
Question 3: What did you collect in the beginning?
Latest Articles
In 1887, the firm Otto Nolte & Co. of Berlin offered to supply the Free State government with silver and copper coins. Sketches of the proposed patterns were enclosed, and the company said that they were prepared to make alterations.
Nineteen months later, the Volksraad had still not responded to Otto Nolte & Co., whereupon the company forwarded six patterns to the President, informing him, "We hope that these models will meet with your approval, and while we again point to the important advantage which your government would derive from its own coinage through ordering, we flatter ourselves with the hope of receiving a favourable reply soon". However, the Volksraad decided against it. Read the full article here.
By January 1900, trading currency had become scarce in Mafiking; people had buried good coin, and no more was available from the bank, so Baden Powell, with the help of R. Urry of the Standard Bank, arranged for notes of the value of 1/- and 2/- to be printed. These were issued in January and February, printed by Messrs. Townsend and supervised by Capt. H. Greener, Chief Paymaster to the Garrison, whose signature is on the notes. A 3/- note was issued in March only. These notes were printed in blue printing ink on the reverse side of ruled Croxley writing paper, on which was used the blind embossed Bechuanaland Protectorate stamp.
Our previous article on the Mafeking siege focused on the banknotes that were printed during the period. In Part 2, we will look at other collectables associated with the siege, including military medals, stamps, commemorative medals, trench art and more.
The war sparked quite an industry in the various siege towns. One of the first to start manufacturing souvenirs was a person called Joseph Gerrans, who had workshops in Mafeking. His antics led to tragedy when a 6-inch Creusot shell exploded while he was working on it to remove the fuse, and a passerby was killed. Read the article here.
Library and archive news:
We have recently received a trove of documents sourced by Thomas van der Spuy in the Berlin archive relating to the minting of the first ZAR coinage. With his permission, these were loaded into the WCNS archives for anyone to access. Most of it is in German, but it can easily be transcribed. Please note, these are large files - 833 Mb and 344 Mb respectively in PDF format. Navigate to the Library, Categories, ZAR Coinage, General, WCNS.42 & 43, The Berlin Files
Footnote:
On a personal note:
With this, my final website and newsletter update, I would like to thank the WCNS members and readers, and in particular Pierre H. Nortje, for his critique and support, without which this journey would not have been nearly as interesting and enjoyable.
And now I say: happy hunting and goodbye. Derick Rabe.