PDFPrintE-mail

Germany: Good Luck to the Transvaal on the Opening of the State Mint in Pretoria

Germany:  Good Luck to the Transvaal on the Opening of the State Mint in PretoriaGermany:  Good Luck to the Transvaal on the Opening of the State Mint in Pretoria
Germany:  Good Luck to the Transvaal on the Opening of the State Mint in PretoriaGermany:  Good Luck to the Transvaal on the Opening of the State Mint in Pretoria
Form: Circular with and without attached loop
By: Otto Schultz (except Fortuna)
Date: 1892
Ref:  AM: 4; Hern: 14; Laidlaw: 0966;
Variations:
SizeMetalMassValue
30.1 mmBronze (Loop)$400
30 mmBronze (No Loop)$400

Edge: Plain.

Obverse: Winged figure of Fortuna, blindfolded, front, paddle resting in right hand, left hand supporting an orb on her head. Legend in German: "GLÜCK AUF TRANSVAAL (good luck to the Transvaal)". Beaded border round the rim.

Reverse: Within a laurel wreath tied at the bottom, across in German: "ERSTE / PRÄGUNG / AUF DEN / MÜNZ- / MASCHINEN / 1892 (first impression by the coin machine 1892)". Beaded border round the rim.

Notes: AM2 records that these medals were also struck in copper equal in size and weigh to a penny. Twenty five medals were struck in copper.

Minor differences in the reverse dies of the bronze medals have been noted. This suggests that a much larger number of bronze medals were made.

The dies were made by Otto Schultz at the Imperial Mint in Berlin and the medals struck at the Berlin Medal Mint of L. Ostermann (formerly owned by G.Loos). Osterman supplied Schultz with the matrix of Fortuna used in the early 1800s for another medal.

Otto Schultz is better known as the man who also produced the dies for the ZAR coinage which were sent to South Africa to be struck on the new presses.

The law regulating the Mint was enacted on 7 August 1892 and the Mint was operational by November of the same year.