A Short History of the South African Numismatic Society (Founded 1941)
Pierre H. Nortje (February 2025)
In 1947, the South African Numismatic Society published its Magazine for 1947 for private circulation. The publication gives a fairly complete summary of the society’s founding years. It says that the first meeting was held on the 29th of August 1941 in Rosebank, Cape Town.
Subsequently a committee was formed consisting of Major J. Piek as President, Major J.L. Knobel as Vice President, Mr. V. Des Vages and Mr. F.S. Wagner as joint Secretaries and Treasures. The committee members were Mr. K.L.M. Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. W. Kruger, Mr. P.J. Els and Mr. Neville Hayne.
Picture left: J.L. Piek (“Oom Jack”), the first president of the SANS. Picture right: Natalie Jaffe (1943-2023) its last president.
The Society was to be known as the Cape Town Coin Club but this was changed at the next meeting to the South African Numismatic Society. The objectives of the Society were to study numismatics in general and South African numismatics in particular and mutually help members interested in these subjects.
Minutes of the first meeting held on Friday 29th of August, 1941.
Membership of the society was open to anyone interested in numismatics and the subscription was Ten Shillings per year for members residing in the Cape Peninsula and Five Shillings per annum for others. Meetings were held on a monthly basis at members’ homes and visitors were welcome.
In 1944, two publications were distributed to members. The first was a pamphlet by Dr. Keppel H. Barnard of the South African Museum on a Bantam coin found during excavations of the then-new graving dock in Cape Town. The second was entitled Notes from Our Scrapbook which was apparently well received by members. These two publications were followed up by the Magazine in 1947. By that year, the society had 51 members of which 10 were institutional members i.e. the South African Mint and various South African museums. The society also had members in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and other countries.
The patron of the society was Mr. J.H. Hofmeyer, the Minister of Finance. The following persons were the Presidents of the society during its first years.
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Major J. Piek (1941-1942)
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Major J.L. Knobel (1942-1943)
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Mr. K.L.M. Alexander (1943-1944)
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Mr. H.F. Knowles (1944-1945)
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Mr. G.W. Morris (1945-1946)
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Mr. V. Des Vages (1946-1947)
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Mr. J. McArthur Day (1947-1948)
In September 1948, Dr. Frank Mitchell started the publication of newsletters for the society. In the first issue, he writes “It is important that the interest in the Society should be maintained and fostered. The Cape Town members, once in the majority, have the opportunity to meet regularly in each other’s houses, to see each other’s collections, to acquire new ideas and knowledge of the hobby, and to hear the occasional little bits of news. But with the growth of the Society, the Country members are now in the majority, and to keep their interest, and give them their money’s worth, it has been decided to start this monthly magazine”.
In 1964, the Society published the first of its ten journals. This first issue provides a lot of information on the Society since its inception in 1941. A list of past officers (Patrons, Presidents and Secretaries) is provided. The journal describes the Society's involvement in events like the proposed striking a crown piece in 1947 to co-inside with the Royal Family’s visit. During the Jan van Riebeeck tercentenary festival in 1952, the Society took the opportunity to arrange a very comprehensive exhibition at the South African Museum, Cape Town, and published a brochure giving an outline of all sections of South African Numismatics.
In May 1960, delegates from the Society played a major role at the First South African Numismatic Convention, arranged in Johannesburg by its sister Society in the Transvaal. Cape delegates contributed a number of original papers and took with them several outstanding exhibits.
In 1964, the Society staged the Second National Convention in Cape Town during January combining it with a Numismatic Exhibition, “ …the like of which South Africa had never previously seen - it was more impressive even, than the memorable Tercentenary Exhibition!”. A catalogue was issued of the items exhibited “…an invaluable reference to practically the entire field of Africana Numismatics”.
By 1964, the Society had a membership of 212, i.e. 158 members in Southern Africa, 32 overseas, and 22 institutional members. With such a large membership, the meetings at the homes of members became unmanageable, and meetings were held at the old South African Museum at the top of Queen Victoria Street. Later it changed to the SA Cultural History Museum at the top of Adderley Street. The last venue of the meetings of the society was the Jewish Synagogue Hall in Sea Point.
In 1978 the last Journal was published. In 1991, the Society published its Jubilee Journal for its 50th anniversary. By then, many of the “old guard” had passed away and obituaries were written on three past Presidents who then recently had died, John White Brett, Dr Frank Mitchell and Walter Bergman. The last mentioned presented the Society with a ceremonial President’s hammer and a trophy for numismatic endeavor, The first recipient of the trophy was Jean Day in 1974 and the last (regarding the SA Numismatic Society) was in 2005 to Gabriele Athiros. Likewise, the last President to receive the Silver Hammer was Mrs. Natalie Jaffe in 2010.
Both these two items were again awarded in 2023, but at that stage, the name of the society and its constitution had changed.
During the first decade of the 2000s the Newsletters of the Society were stopped and by the second decade the Society was for all practical purposes dormant.
In 2021 the society was resurrected as the Western Cape Numismatic Society with a new constitution. The first president and vice president were Waldo Human and Adrian Jordi respectively.
The first recipient of the Bergman trophy for numismatic endeavor was Thomas van der Spuy for being the first collector to complete a graded collection of ZAR coins in mint state.
