South Africa - 1 Penny - 1940

Good evening,
Another foreign coin gifted to me by a family member..

Suid Afrika - 1940
1 Penny (The size of a US Half Dollar)




I want to share the following Numista information

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3202.html

 

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Metal detecting?

 

Not this time. I was gifted a few foreign coins by my wife's cousin. I posted a Norway coin this morning.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/norway-10-kroner-interesting-recessed-field.389510/

 

Very nice @paddyman98.

The Union of South Africa issued some nice silver coins as well. I'm personally quite fond of the design used for the shilling, as it reminds me of the Edwardian Florin.

(NOT MINE)

 

I have 3 South African coins in my world silver collection. I am particularly fond of the shilling.

 

Now what would a ship have to do with the British and South Africa?

 

The ship was called the Dromidaris
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/arrival-jan-van-riebeeck-cape-6-april-1652

 

Slave ship?

 

Quote "On board the Dromedaris Van Riebeeck conducted meetings with his officials – minutes of the meetings of the Council of Policy, dated from December 1651, have been carefully archived.

Land was sighted on 5 April 1652 and the ships docked the next day. Within a week of the arrival of the three ships, work had begun on the Fort of Good Hope. The aim was to establish a refreshment station to supply the crew of the Company's passing trading ships with fresh water, vegetables and fruit, meat and medical assistance. However, the first winter experienced by Van Riebeeck and his crew was extremely harsh, as they lived in wooden huts and their gardens were washed away by the heavy rains. As a result their food dwindled and at the end of the winter approximately 19 men had died." Closed quote

 

I have 3 silver 5 Shillings from South Africa

 

Oh, so it was a sort of an exploration ship, establishing a colony to facilitate trade in commodities. But just in food and water and such, this historian doesn't mention anything about trade in any human commodities. And why would a 1940 British coin celebrate the slave trade, anyway? That's what I was wondering, why I asked about the ship.

 

Think about it.. 1940.. Times were different back then. It's an obvious answer. But it was not my intention for my thread to dwell about that time of history.. It would be like asking why German coins from that same time period depict Swastikas.

 

I was wondering what was being celebrated in the old ship. It makes sense German coins in 1940 would depict Swastikas. If German coins depicted Swastikas today, I'd have the same question relative to them. This isn't a 1940 ship. Yet there's a reason for it on the back of that 1940 coin. Didn't mean to challenge you on the question.

 

From Wiki
Riebeeck was requested by the Dutch East India Company to undertake the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa and departed from Texel on 24 December 1651. He landed two ships (The Drommedaris and Goede Hoope) in Table Bay, at the future Cape Town site on 6 April 1652, and a third ship, the Reijger, on 7 April 1652. He was accompanied by 82 men and 8 women, including his wife of two years, Maria.[8] The fleet originally included five ships, but the Walvis and the Oliphant arrived late, having had 130 burials at sea.

 

So that's its relationship. I see. It makes sense on the coin, then.

 

Cool. My answer was not that good so my apologies also.

Thanks for your better response @expat

 

Credit you with an assist. But I was really curious, so thanks for that response. Beautiful coin, BTW.